Official Languages Committee on Oct. 27th, 2009

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

So there would be a cost to replace that person, to hire someone else while that person is at the course.

How does Air Canada ensure that their contractors, such as Jazz, provide official languages?

[Louise McEvoy]

We have service agreements with our third parties, such as Jazz, whereby the service they offer on our behalf must be equal to the service we offer.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

I want to reiterate what Mr. Chong said. I know you people are doing as much as you possibly can, but really we need to look at our education system.

Coming from a classroom, I certainly see that all the way. It's by starting these children off. If we're a bilingual country, we should start our children off in that, and it's very sad to see some governments withdraw those services.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Ms. O'Neill-Gordon.

Mr. Dhaliwal, welcome to the committee. I understand that you will be splitting your time.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the panel members for coming here.

I'll carry on with the issue that the Honourable Mr. Chong raised about multiculturalism.

As I recall, I came to this country in 1984, around the same year that the Canadian Multiculturalism Act was brought in. The report that Mr. Chong mentioned was written in 2001. That means it took Air Canada 17 years to even recognize Canada as a multicultural nation.

It is now eight years later. What have you done to rectify that situation?

[Louise McEvoy]

To reflect the multiculturalism of the country, we recruit people who not only speak the two official languages of Canada; they also speak the languages of our destinations, reflecting also the people of Canada.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

It's not about the destination. I'm talking about that particular report, that it took you 17 full years to recognize multiculturalism, and now it's been 7 years. Have you rectified that situation in principle?

[Priscille LeBlanc]

I suppose there are different approaches to answering your question. Air Canada last year or the year before was recognized as the number one diverse employer in terms of diversity. This was in Montreal. We were recognized for the different programs that we have to promote diversity in the workplace. That would certainly include the multicultural aspect.

So it is inherent in the culture of the corporation to the degree that we can make it. In terms of our obligations in serving the public, as we've said before, we make a great attempt to provide the travelling public originating in Canada with services in the language of their choice.

At our call centres, for example, our employees speak probably 20 languages. It is quite possible to transact your reservation in Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and a number of languages.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

I was travelling recently to small countries like Hungary, Belgium, Italy, and many others. Here we're talking here about two officials languages; we have difficulties here in such a vast country with such a vast terrain. But when I was out there, those airline employees were speaking more than even three languages. In Belgium there's French, Dutch, English, and then in Hungary there's Hungarian, English, Dutch, and the same in many other countries.

How do you compare those private airlines with Air Canada, the efforts that they have made, being small nations, compared to us as a bilingual nation?

[Louise McEvoy]

I would say that the employees of an airline are not too different from the population of a country, and the population of those countries speak many more languages than the population of Canada does.

We have often been at meetings with other airlines who offer linguistic products to their employees. We have noticed that the airlines from Europe are more linguistically diverse than any North American airline, for sure. Air Canada speaks more languages than other North American airlines, but the Europeans are at another place totally.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Can I pass my time to my colleague?

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Well, you took all the time you were given.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

We'll move to Mr. Godin.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

When we talk about languages, it's always interesting and time passes quickly.

Are you going to take a serious look at the question of the card on board the aircraft?

[Louise McEvoy]

Yes, we're going to try to—

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Mr. Sauvageau proved that it didn't cost that much. He even had some made. There's a whole story behind that. Perhaps it should be called the “Sauvageau card”.

[Louise McEvoy]

Indeed.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

He was committed to this issue. We said there should perhaps be contraventions in the event the act is violated, as is done elsewhere. I don't know whether we'll have to wait for your next appearance or whether we can have you appear again to discuss this subject at greater length, but this is a problem that you must try to solve one way or another. There's also the recruitment issue.

I've been a member of the Official Languages Committee since 1998. A few years ago, we conducted a national tour and discovered that there were francophone communities across the country. I'm going to make some suggestions to you. Do you meet with the francophone associations in the regions? There's a big one in Edmonton. Through their network and the people they meet, these people can help you do promotion. In the case of Toronto, I don't have the figures in hand, but someone could bring them later.

It isn't necessary to talk just about Quebec. I talked about New Brunswick because I come from that region, but I know there are 250,000 francophones there. One of the problems, it seems, is that we don't speak English well enough. We Acadians mix up our words and say things like: “Prends le broom et ramasse la dust dans le corner.” That definitely wouldn't work at Air Canada, but, back home, we say that's bilingual.

There are a large number of francophones in Toronto. In British Columbia, we have to tip our hat to the Chinese community. These people come to Canada, and the first thing they want to do is learn the country's two official languages. They even complain that there aren't enough immersion schools. They're ready to say “Hello, how are you?” rather than “I don't speak French.” There are also francophones in Manitoba, in Saint-Boniface. I don't know how many there are in the Winnipeg region. We were surprised to see how many there were in Newfoundland as well.

It isn't up to us to tell you how to do your recruitment, but we can suggest some ideas. I don't know whether you already have something to propose to us, but I'm going to wait and see what you do concerning the card. You say that the number of complaints has declined since last year, but it's also since last year that the card has been in the enRoute magazine.

[Louise McEvoy]

We hope this is also because our service has improved. With regard to the card, we're making a commitment to see what can be done to raise its profile. Absolutely.

As for recruitment, we regularly meet with members of the minority francophone communities at job fairs and parent meetings, such as those of Parents for French. We also meet with young people. I don't remember what the Edmonton group is called, but we are there because we think it's important to meet with young people at the high school level. Our positions, particularly those involving contact with the public, don't necessarily require university training. In Toronto, we have a fair every year for young people at the high school level studying in French. These aren't necessarily young people whose mother tongue is French, but they're studying in French and are perfectly bilingual.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

All right, but back home, in Bathurst, approximately 350 young people from the comprehensive school graduate every year. I don't think Air Canada has come to our schools. In Caraquet, there are 150 or more, and the same is true in Shippagan. There's also the southern part of the province. These are suggestions. I think the recruitment effort can be improved.

[Louise McEvoy]

Absolutely.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Godin.

We'll conclude with Ms. Guay.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

What a nice birthday present! Thank you very much.

Earlier my colleague talked about figures for New Brunswick and other provinces. Personally, I have the figures concerning the city of Toronto. According to the 2006 statistics, 229,280 persons there are bilingual. In greater Toronto, the number is 418,505. I will never believe you can't recruit bilingual people in that community. That's just Toronto. That doesn't include New Brunswick, Manitoba, Quebec... It's almost incredible that Air Canada doesn't offer—I said this earlier, but I'm repeating it—bilingual services today, in 2009, at airport facilities.

I'm going to tell you a little horror story that I experienced on an Air Canada flight. A unilingual French woman seated next to me needed an extension for her seat belt. She spoke to the flight attendant, who didn't speak French and who simply told her: “I don't speak French.” To help her, since the plane was taking off, and since I'm bilingual and felt this was an emergency, I spoke to the flight attendant and asked him for an extension. I won't tell you the nasty comments I heard coming out of his mouth.

Since the woman didn't understand, he probably felt free to say: what a fat woman, it's incredible, or something like that. It wasn't really gratifying. The woman was panicking because she must have thought the plane was taking off and she wasn't belted in yet.

These kinds of things shouldn't happen. It's happened to me once, but it was extremely unpleasant. The woman asked me what the attendant had just said, and I didn't repeat it to her. It wasn't worth the trouble because I would have stressed her for no reason. It was also a long trip; we were going to Vancouver.

Earlier I talked to you about safety. This is part of safety. If a flight attendant isn't even able to understand that a person needs an extension for her seat belt—and this happens regularly, if not often—that's serious. It's unacceptable.

You say it, but you don't even have any figures to give us today. You're telling us that there were 86 admissible complaints. I'm convinced, madam, that there are 10 times more, even 100 times more. However, people don't necessarily know where they can complain to. I know that, at my office, we receive complaints of this kind because people think they'll go see their member. You'll have to make an effort on this matter and present us with some real figures because we don't have any, any figures, on bilingualism.

By how much has bilingualism increased or decreased among your employees? We have absolutely nothing here that tells us exactly where you stand. And you're asking the government to help you! And yet we have no information, no indication, no figures. You'll have to do your homework in certain areas.

[Louise McEvoy]

In our annual report, we have all those figures, and we can provide them to you. As I said, our bilingual ratio has stagnated at 40% for about nine years, and we can provide you with all the details you want.