LANG Committee Report

SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT OF THE NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF CANADA ON THE FOLLOW-UP TO THE STUDY ON THE TRANSLATION BUREAU “REVERSE THE TREND: STRIVE FOR EXCELLENCE”

The New Democratic Party (NDP) would like to thank all those who appeared before the Standing Committee on Official Languages for its study of the Translation Bureau (TB). We appreciate the hard work the TB does to protect the official languages and promote the cultural development of our country.

The NDP agrees with the second response provided by the Minister of Public Services and Procurement. However, we would like to offer some comments regarding the TB’s role in hiring students and graduates, the focus on quality and the recruitment of a chief quality officer, the TB’s budget, reinvestment and official languages governance within the government.

Following the second response from Ms. Foote, we listened to stakeholders’ reactions and carefully analyzed their recommendations. We believe it is essential to add the following points:

First, the Minister’s commitment does not seem clear about the need to hire indeterminate employees. We ask for confirmation that the commitment indeed involves the hiring of 25 new indeterminate employees each year, not 25 interns. That said, we must point out that these new employees will not be sufficient to address stakeholders’ needs.

Second, we ask that the government conduct an immediate review of the procurement system. As Ms. Nicole Gagnon stated, “The proposed system discriminates against quality. It seeks to establish one all-inclusive rate for each of the streams, regardless of the mode of interpretation. As a result, the more versatile, specialized, and experienced interpreters will lose out to the lowest bidders.”[1] Consequently, a new quality-based strategy for translation and interpretation contracting must be implemented.

The NDP makes the following recommendations:

1. That a billing system based on the hours of work rather than the number of words be established in order to reflect the unique, intellectual, professional and qualitative nature of translation.

2. That the contracts awarded to bidding companies be classified according to size, security level, experience and other meaningful categories.

3. That contract length and size be increased in order to support Canadian suppliers.

4. That all projects and contracts be awarded to Canadian companies for obvious reasons of security and confidentiality.

Third, we ask that the Minister immediately respond to the stakeholders’ request regarding the TB’s governance. We would like the Minister to study the possibility of transferring responsibility for the TB to Canadian Heritage or the Privy Council Office. As Ms. Dominique Bohbot noted, responsibility for the TB “must be transferred to an authority other than Public Services and Procurement, because translation is a highly intellectual activity and not a simple product.”[2]

Fourth, the Minister does not appear to be taking any steps regarding the TB’s annual budget. Accordingly, we call on the Minister to present a plan to reinvest in the TB.

In closing, the NDP would like to thank Ms. Foote for her second response. However, like the stakeholders, we remain convinced that even stronger measures are needed to restore the TB to its former glory.