LANG Committee Report

APPENDIX B

De : Alexandre.Pascale@hrma-agrh.gc.ca [mailto:Alexandre.Pascale@hrma-agrh.gc.ca]
Envoyé : mercredi 13 avril 2005 12:52 PM
À : Ménard, Marion
Cc : Trim.Katharine@hrma-agrh.gc.ca
Objet : FW: Dépenses annuelles pour la formation linguistique

Mr. Ménard,

Here is some information to respond to your request. The Official Languages Branch maintained a database on the costs of the Official Languages Programs (OLP) on a fiscal-year basis until March 31, 1999. This database was the only centralized system with respect to the costs of the OLP for expenditures within the Public Service. A decision was made to stop capturing this information because it was an expensive process. As a result, there is no information on cost training available or traceable between 2000 and 2004.

The Directive on Language Training and Learning Retention, effective April 1 2004, stipulates, “Each institution is responsible for keeping its records and information systems up to date and assessing results in order to report on them on request.”  Within this Directive, each department is responsible for monitoring the costs associated with language training and we will be able to better capture costs in the future. Since the fiscal year just ended such information is still not yet available for the year 2004-2005.

The funds allocated to training provided by private schools, or training which departments organize internally are integrated into the overall operational budgets of each government department as are the replacement costs for the employees absent on language training.  Language training is one component of each department’s training budget and frequently is not reported separately. This issue has been raised frequently and it is our intention to apprise the Committee of new developments as they become available.

Pascale Alexandre
Media / Parliamentary Monitoring Officer | Agent, surveillance Médias et Affaires parlementaires
Media Relations and Parliamentary Affairs | Relations avec les médias et affaires parlementaires
Communications | Communications
Public Service Human Resources Management Agency of Canada  | Agence de gestion des ressources humaines de la fonction publique du Canada
Ottawa, Canada K1A 0G5
613-952-3008 | Alexandre.Pascale@hrma-agrh.gc.ca | facsimile/télécopieur
613-954-1018

From: Ménard, Marion [mailto:MenarM@parl.gc.ca]
Sent: April 4, 2005 1:37 PM
To: Trim, Katharine
Subject: Annual expenditures on language training

Hello Ms. Trim,

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages is considering various issues relating to bilingualism in the federal public service. Since the start of proceedings, the amount spent on language training for federal employees has been raised a number of times.

The amounts invested in this sector are shown in Treasury Board’s annual report on official languages (see attached spread sheet). This information is apparently not available from 1999-2000 onward.

<<Funding OL 95 - 04.xls>>

Could Treasury Board (or the Public Service Human Resources Management Agency) provide the annual expenditures on language training since 1999-2000?

Thank you very much for your assistance.

Marion Ménard
Analyst, Parliamentary Information and Research Service
Library of Parliament
151 Sparks Street
La Promenade Building
Ottawa, K1A 0A9
Telephone: (613) 995-771
Fax: (613) 992-5015
menarm@parl.gc.ca