Statement made on 03 November 2010 by Senator Grant Mitchell
Hon. Grant Mitchell:
Honourable senators, there is one feature of the language commissioner's report that I found to be particularly revealing and interesting, particularly in light of what the leader has said about the government's commitment and the priority the government places on official languages, and how hard they will work with the Commissioner of Official Languages to solve these problems.
The commissioner said:
. . . too many federal institutions have difficulty fulfilling their language obligations regarding service to the public because they fail to adequately follow up on the plans they have developed or agreements they have signed, or because they fail to monitor the impact of their actions.
Those two features require management and leadership. If one does not have management and one does not have leadership, those things are not done. They have not been done for five years under this government's regime.
How can this leader say that her government is committed to official languages as some kind of initiative or priority when she simply has not applied the resources, and does not have the priorities, or, perhaps, the leadership, to make that priority happen when the government has had five years to do that?
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