Evidence of meeting #33 for Official Languages in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was bilingual.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:50 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
As a general rule, internal inquiries into employee behaviour are not made public.
9:50 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
Yes, it is a matter of complying with the individual's human rights.
9:50 a.m.
Bloc
Richard Nadeau Bloc Gatineau, QC
Very well.
Potential employees' knowledge of English and French is tested during the hiring process. Do you carry out periodic reviews, for example five years, to ensure that employees can still work in both languages?
9:50 a.m.
Chief Strategy Officer and Official Languages Champion, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
We rely on our supervisors to ensure that employees can carry out all of their duties. We are in the process of implementing a system to review our employees' capacity to work in both English and French.
9:50 a.m.
Chief Strategy Officer and Official Languages Champion, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
Yes, to make it more formal than it currently is. At the moment, we rely on our supervisors to inform us if an employee is no longer able to...
9:55 a.m.
Bloc
9:55 a.m.
Chief Strategy Officer and Official Languages Champion, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
Yes, exactly.
9:55 a.m.
Bloc
Richard Nadeau Bloc Gatineau, QC
I would recommend that you carry out five-year reviews of your employees' language skills as a means of quality control.
In an emergency, everybody works together to ensure that passengers are evacuated safely and in the best possible conditions, at least with regard to their physical well-being.
I appreciate that in the normal course of events, clients can receive service either in French or in English. However, in an emergency, if there are unilingual employees on the train, service is sometimes only provided in one language.
9:55 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
That is correct, Mr. Nadeau, it can happen.
That is why we have resisted the demands of employees in the west who wanted to be allowed to hold these better paid positions to boost their pension on the grounds that, as their region has not been designated bilingual, official language requirements on this matter do not have to be met. We however felt that public safety goes beyond the designation of bilingual regions, and we stood firm. Unfortunately, we had to go to court, but I believe that was the reasonable course of action.
9:55 a.m.
Bloc
Richard Nadeau Bloc Gatineau, QC
Do not pay too much attention to the way in which Mr. Petit describes Quebec's Charter of the French Language or the bills which the Bloc Québécois and the NDP have introduced to protect employees' rights. Let us be clear: the finger of blame has been pointed at us, at all Quebeckers and at everybody in this room who respects Quebeckers. VIA Rail can rest assured that, whether Quebec becomes sovereign or remains part of Canada, and whether it is an NDP or a Bloc Québécois bill that is adopted with the support of all members in the House of Commons, the aim is the same, to ensure respect for the Quebec nation in such situations and, of course, to ensure respect for all employees in all fields in Quebec.
9:55 a.m.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
Mr. Nadeau is busy criticizing a former colleague and erstwhile Parti Québécois candidate.
9:55 a.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
Before we start washing our dirty laundry, I would like to thank the witnesses.
Madam Sirsly, Mr. Côté, and Mr. Wright, thank you for appearing this morning in the committee and for showing us this nice picture.
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
I think it's very motivating for the members to see society acting this way toward the official languages.
9:55 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
Thank you for the invitation.