Statement made on 22 March 2011 by Senator Maria Chaput
Hon. Maria Chaput:
Honourable senators, my question for the Leader of the Government in the Senate is the following: On March 8, 2011, the Associate Deputy Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development at Service Canada testified before a committee at the other place that:
The administrative region of the Atlantic extends to Newfoundland and all of the Maritime Provinces and is designated unilingual.
Yesterday, I learned that, according to the minister responsible for Human Resources and Skills Development:
The Service Canada Atlantic Region has not been designated unilingual. There has been absolutely no change in bilingual services in the region. Every Service Canada centre and employee position that had been designated bilingual remains bilingual.
Today, we learned from a daily newspaper in New Brunswick that Service Canada's administration will now be concentrated in Halifax, a city where the predominant language is English. Will this city be designated bilingual by Service Canada or will there be a Service Canada office designated bilingual in Halifax? In light of this rather confusing information, I must admit that I am quite perplexed and I am not the only one.
My first question is the following: Since, if I understood correctly, the situation will remain unchanged with regard to service delivery in both official languages, what are the consequences of designating the administrative region of Atlantic Canada unilingual? Could the Leader of the Government in the Senate explain to us what the unilingual designation of the administrative region implies?
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