Welcome to the Senate, Ms. Joly. My question is about access to justice in the official language of one's choice. I would like to begin by saying that I welcomed this summer's announcement from the federal government about its plan to appoint only bilingual justices to the Supreme Court. I congratulate your government on taking action on that front just recently.

However, the whole point of having bilingual judges is access to justice, so my question concerns all 1,131 judges appointed by the federal government across Canada.

Currently, the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs considers bilingualism to be one of 14 professional competencies that may be considered in assessing a candidate's suitability for the role of a judge.

Is your department working with the Minister of Justice to ensure that not only is bilingualism a consideration, but also that every province has a sufficient number of bilingual judges so that Canadians really have access to justice in the official language of their choice?

Hon. Mélanie Joly, P.C., M.P., Minister of Canadian Heritage: Thank you, senator. You asked me a similar question when I appeared before the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages. Please know that our government believes that it is vital that people have access to justice in their language of choice. It is part of how we show leadership on official languages.

As for your specific question, I am currently working with my provincial and territorial counterparts. At the most recent federal- provincial meeting on the Canadian francophonie and official languages in St. John's in June, we collectively decided to make access to justice a priority at the next conference in June 2017.

In the meantime, I have been working on this issue, and we are currently doing an inventory of the bilingualism of judges across the country. We will be able to use that information to look into this issue next June. The information can also help us find solutions to address the fact that people across the country don't always have access to justice in the language of their choice.

Senator Gagné: I have a supplementary question. Does that mean that the government is considering a minimum threshold for each province? Will the government be determining those thresholds and will they be made public?

Ms. Joly: That is a good question, Senator Gagné. I am prepared to consider different scenarios, but one thing is certain, and that is that there are already agreements between provinces to provide better access to bilingual judges in some cases. However, it is difficult for me to speculate before the inventory is complete. I would rather make fact-based decisions. However, please know that this is a priority for our government and that we will examine the issue in 2017.