Departmental Performance Report 2013-14

Raison d’être

The mandate of the Commissioner of Official Languages is to oversee the full implementation of the Official Languages Act,protect the language rights of Canadians and promote linguistic duality and bilingualism in Canada.

The President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada is responsible for tabling the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages’ (OCOL’s) administrative reports in Parliament, including the Report on Plans and Priorities and the Departmental Performance Report.

Responsibilities

Under the Act, therefore, the Commissioner is required to take every measure within his power to ensure that the three main objectives of the Official Languages Act are met:

• the equality of the status and use of English and French in Parliament, the Government of Canada, the federal administration and the institutions subject to the Act;
• the development of official language communities in Canada; and
• the advancement of the equality of English and French in Canadian society.

Strategic Outcome and Program Alignment Architecture

• 1. Strategic Outcome: Rights guaranteed by the Official Languages Act are protected and linguistic duality is promoted as a fundamental value of Canadian society.
  • 1.1 Program: Protection of Language Rights
  • 1.2 Program: Promotion of Linguistic Duality
  • Internal Services

Organizational Priorities

In the 2013-14 Report on Plans and Priorities, OCOL established four organizational priorities for areas in which significant progress had to be made over the next fiscal year in order to fully support the strategic outcome. The progress made on each of these priorities can be found in Section I of this report, while Section II lists other accomplishments.

Risk Analysis

The 2013-14 Report on Plans and Priorities identified three strategic risks that were likely to influence OCOL’s performance during the year. The following table identifies each risk as well as the risk-response strategy or mitigating actions put forth to manage each risk. The narrative text that follows the table provides further context on the factors in OCOL’s operating environment that led to the risks.

OCOL’s successful delivery of its mandate may be affected by the above-mentioned risks, which are prompted by a number of factors:

• An increase in the demand for OCOL’s services (namely complaints and requests for information) is anticipated as a result of easier access to OCOL’s services through the Web.
• In a context of budget constraints, federal departments have challenges to overcome with regard to fulfilling their language obligations, while official language minority community organizations feel vulnerable and less inclined to ask questions about departments’ decisions that affect them.
• The provisions of the Official Languages Act do not allow OCOL to investigate complaints regarding Treasury Board and Privy Council decisions, so certain highly publicized complaints were inadmissible. Complainants have questioned the use of the Commissioner’s investigative powers and are disappointed that the Act imposes these limits.
• Bill C-520, the Supporting Non-Partisan Agents of Parliament Act,may have an impact on the Commissioner’s independence and ability to fulfill his mandate.

Budgetary Performance Summary for Strategic Outcome(s) and Program(s) (dollars)

Alignment of 2013-14 Actual Spending With the Whole-of-Government Framework (dollars)

Description

Through this program, OCOL investigates complaints filed by citizens who believe their language rights have not been respected, evaluates compliance with the Official Languages Act by federal institutions and other organizations subject to it through performance measurements and audits, and intervenes proactively to prevent non-compliance with the Act. As well, the Commissioner may intervene before the courts in cases that deal with non-compliance with the Official Languages Act.

Performance Results

OCOL received 642 complaints (of which 476 were admissible) and 13 inquiries on the compliance of organizations subject to the Act.

Out of a total of 62 recommendations (of which two no longer apply), 53 were fully or partially implemented within two years of being issued, for a total of 88%.

Performance Analysis and Lessons Learned

In general, performance in 2013-14 was similar to that of the previous year. Service standards for investigations were not met and the results are not as good as in previous years. This is partly due to the fact that a large majority of the investigations completed were part of the backlog at the beginning of the year. In addition, to improve its business processes, OCOL introduced a new information management system to which staff had to adapt, and it was not until the end of 2013 that all staff members had mastered it. In terms of the implementation of the Commissioner’s recommendations, the performance target was largely surpassed. Efforts will continue to be made to reduce the file backlog. Follow-up strategies have been put in place to accomplish this task. In addition, some correspondence is now being sent by e-mail. These changes will optimize OCOL’s business model and reduce timelines related to correspondence with federal institutions.

In addition to the accomplishments presented in the table of priorities in Section I of this report, OCOL:

• implemented its strategy to reduce the investigation file backlog. In 2013-14, 130 files open for more than one year were completed, and there were 192 still open at the end of the fiscal year, which OCOL will examine during the first two quarters of 2014-15 while continuing to process new files.
• conducted a survey of a sample of complainants and federal institutions that deal with OCOL in order to assess their satisfaction with how complaints are handled. The results of the survey indicate general satisfaction with the quality of the service received, but some discontent with the slowness of the process. Some respondents expressed their dissatisfaction with the fact that institutions continue to not comply with the Act, and with OCOL’s limited power to force these institutions to change.
• designed and launched a permanent quality assurance program for all of OCOL’s compliance assurance processes. This program enables OCOL to better understand its performance while making it more transparent and efficient.
• continued to pursue the court remedy it initiated against CBC/Radio-Canadain 2010-11. The Commissioner submitted written observations to the Federal Court in 2013 to express his point of view on the reasons why the matter should be subject to a hearing on merits. The judge scheduled the hearing for June 2014.
• served as co-appellant before the Supreme Court of Canada against Air Canada to clarify the status of the Official Languages Act with regard to an international convention incorporated in Canada’s Carriage by Air Act.
• intervened before the Supreme Court of Canada in Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique v. British Columbia. The Court issued a decision indicating that French documents without an English translation are inadmissible as evidence in British Columbia civil proceedings.

Description

Through this program, OCOL works with parliamentarians, federal institutions and other organizations subject to the Official Languages Act, official language communities and the Canadian public to promote linguistic duality. OCOL builds links between federal institutions, official language communities and the different levels of government to help them better understand the needs of official language communities, the importance of bilingualism and the value of respecting Canada’s linguistic duality. As part of its promotion role, OCOL conducts research, studies and public awareness activities and intervenes with senior federal officials so that they instill a change in culture to fully integrate linguistic duality into their organizations.

Performance Results

Performance Analysis and Lessons Learned

In 2013-14, OCOL concentrated its efforts on the area of promotion, notably by increasing the resources of its regional offices. All the performance targets were fully met.

In addition to the accomplishments presented in the table of priorities in Section I of this report and those in the table above, OCOL:

• created social media activities to target Anglophone and Francophone youth and made significant strides in promoting linguistic duality through its social media accounts. Through the distribution of general-interest stories, news articles and the promotion of activities such as the Canada Games, OCOL saw a significant increase^{Footnote 3} in followers of its Facebook and Twitter accounts. OCOL drafted a social media promotional plan. It is annexed to OCOL’s communications plan, which will be approved early in 2014-15.
• established a dialogue with the organizing committees of major events, as part of the launch of its strategy to integrate linguistic duality into major sporting and cultural events (see in Section I, the 150th anniversary of Confederation). In addition to the 150th anniversary, the strategy focused, in 2013-14, on the Canada Summer Games (Sherbrooke 2013) and the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games (Toronto 2015).
• reviewed the practices of the Privy Council Office related to Governor in Council appointments. The report will be published in 2014-15.
• partnered with the University of Ottawa to mark the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. This partnership led to a series of talks by the Commissioner and enabled Canadians to reflect on the historical evolution and contribution of key events that shaped and continue to shape Canada as a bilingual country.
• evaluated the transition from the Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality 2008-2013, which ended on March 31, 2013, to the Roadmap for Canada’s Official Languages 2013-2018. The new phase is focusing efforts on promoting official languages to official language minority communities in three priority sectors: education, immigration and communities. OCOL is satisfied with the continuity of the roadmap process, which ensures long-term funding.
• published the study on language training in the public service to provide an overview of the current status of the issue and look more closely at a sample of federal institutions. This makes it possible to determine how language training is managed.
• published, in partnership with the Commissioner of Official Languages for New Brunswick and the French Language Services Commissioner of Ontario, a study on the bilingual capacity of the superior court judiciary in order to encourage the government to make appropriate changes to the judicial appointment process. The results of the study were presented several times and the Canadian Bar Association passed a resolution urging the government to implement the recommendations.
• also worked closely with the Office of the French Language Services Commissioner of Ontario and the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages for New Brunswick on the issue of immigration, which is a priority for the three commissioners.
• participated in several public events during National Francophone Immigration Week (November 3 to 9, 2013).

The Commissioner contributed to the creation of the International Association of Language Commissioners (IALC) and chaired the inaugural conference, which brought together language commissioners from nine regions and countries in Barcelona, Spain, on March 21, 2014. The participants discussed various subjects, including language rights and challenges in the era of globalization, the impact of minority-language education on the preservation and advancement of minority languages, and the impact of investigations conducted by commissioners’ offices on language rights. The next IALC conference will be held in Ottawa in the spring of 2015.

Description

Internal Services are groups of related activities and resources that are administered to support the needs of programs and other corporate obligations of an organization. These groups are: Management and Oversight Services; Communications Services; Legal Services; Human Resources Management Services; Financial Management Services; Information Management Services; Information Technology Services; Real Property Services; Materiel Services; Acquisition Services; and Other Administrative Services. Internal Services include only those activities and resources that apply across an organization and not to those provided specifically to a program.

Given the legislated requirement to pursue court action under the Act, legal services are excluded from Internal Services at OCOL and form part of Program 1 – Protection of Language Rights. In addition, given its specific mandate, OCOL’s communications services are not included in Internal Services but rather form part of Program 2 – Promotion of Linguistic Duality.

Performance Analysis and Lessons Learned

The table of priorities in Section I of this report lists the key accomplishments in support of the fourth organizational priority (Effectively manage a period of important transitions while fostering a healthy work environment). In addition to these achievements, OCOL:

• continued its participation in the development of a shared case management system for small and medium organizations. After a detailed evaluation of the products presented in the procurement process, Public Works and Government Services Canada awarded a contract for providing and supporting the Microsoft Dynamics CRM system. OCOL approved the immediate use of the product for the development of the second module of the Integrated Enterprise Management Solution (IEMS) and acquired licences from Public Works.
• adopted a strategy for migrating to the PeopleSoft software “My HR” (i.e., “My Government of Canada Human Resources”) for the next fiscal year after the Human Resources Information System replacement project is completed. The new system will be deployed at OCOL in the phase of the Government of Canada’s migration strategy that includes 30 small organizations.
• moved, in March 2014, to 30 Victoria Street in Gatineau. The building meets the LEED certification gold standard and the Government of Canada Workplace 2.0 Fit-up Standards. Frequent communication with employees ensured they were well prepared for the move, and the welcome kit was easy to understand. Post-move surveys show that the move had a minimal effect on most employees’ ability to carry out their tasks.
• worked with the other agents of Parliament located in the new building at 30 Victoria Street in Gatineau, Quebec, which resulted in:
  • the establishment of a shared space for a library for four agents (the sharing of support systems and personnel will be explored next year);
  • the sharing of some IT infrastructure;
  • the establishment of a common security system and joint governance;
  • the sharing of multi-purpose training facilities and increased exchanges of best practices, particularly regarding employee training and development.
• carried out a pilot project with the Canadian Human Rights Commission for OCOL’s contract management services. It was concluded that OCOL’s needs would be better met with an internal resource person, who now has a position within the organization.
• completed its internal audit of strategic communications and promotion as well as the evaluation of the annual report development process.

Expense Breakdown

Liabilities

Assets