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.
Conservative
Daniel Petit Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
So let's suppose that he is 100% anglophone. When he arrives with his locomotive at the Quebec border, does he disembark and get replaced with a francophone engineer to continue?
President and Chief Executive Officer, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
I don't know. I would imagine that if they didn't have the right to speak English... I really don't know. I am not really familiar with the background, with the details of this legislation. I would have to review it and we would have to make a more specific assessment. I truly cannot answer you more specifically. But from the way you have described it, it seems to me that this would be an obligation. We would comply if that were the case.
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
Thank you, Mr. Petit.
Before continuing, Mr. Côté, you mentioned that in northern Manitoba, I believe, you had to defend the bilingual position of the service manager. Did you ultimately win your case?
President and Chief Executive Officer, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
Yes. The court recognized that the need to provide service in both official languages in a situation where safety is at stake was more important than the argument presented by the employees that they would be able to improve their personal salaries. That was an extremely important decision for us.
Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to...
Are you able to answer?
Chief Strategy Officer and Official Languages Champion, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
I can read you the complaint.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
We can come back to this, because there will be other rounds.
We will begin our second round. This time, I will give the floor to Ms. Zarac.
Please be assured that you will have enough time to answer Ms. Glover.
Liberal
Lise Zarac Liberal LaSalle—Émard, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning. It would appear that you go to great effort to provide good passenger service. Since 1986, you have required that your employees be bilingual. I find that this is an example to be followed.
However, I understand that you still have some employees working who speak only one language. When you prepare your duty rosters, is that taken into consideration, or is seniority the only thing that counts? Do you make sure that there is always someone in the car who is able to serve people in both languages?
President and Chief Executive Officer, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
Every train team includes a minimum of bilingual positions. For example, there is one position, the service manager position, which is on board the corridor trains. The other positions are assigned on the basis of seniority. However, because there is a great deal of staff turnover and hirings have been made recently, the probability of having a team staffed entirely with unilingual English employees, with the service manager, is just about zero.
In the transcontinental trains running from the east to the west, there is the service manager position and the service coordinator position. So we have two positions that have been designated bilingual and which of course require complete mastery of the two languages, whereas the other positions are assigned in accordance with seniority. Given the turnover rate—once again, personnel has been replaced—the percentage of bilingual people compared to unilingual people is now much higher. However, I cannot give you the exact figure.
Liberal
Lise Zarac Liberal LaSalle—Émard, QC
So as time goes on, your personnel will become more and more bilingual?
Liberal
Lise Zarac Liberal LaSalle—Émard, QC
With respect to your complaints process, I would like to know if you evaluate the complaints you receive simply by using a survey, or is there some other process for complaints.
President and Chief Executive Officer, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
The survey is voluntary and it is used to ascertain from the clients whether or not they have been served in the language of their choice, whether the quality of the service was good, if they got good value for money, etc. It is a bit like traditional surveys, if you like.
Moreover, we have with us one of our employees who works as the official languages coordinator for our programs and serves an interface with the Office of the Commissioner. Ms. Desaulniers is here. When the Office of the Commissioner receives a complaint, this complaint is forwarded to us, to me and to Ms. Sirsly, who is the Official Languages Champion—we are using the government's terminology, but it is true that she is a champion all the same. Ms. Desaulniers is responsible for investigating the complaint, but she also responsible for the follow-up with the representatives from the commissioner's office and for providing the latter with information.
Liberal
President and Chief Executive Officer, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
In 2008, we had only one complaint. That is correct.
Liberal
President and Chief Executive Officer, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
Indeed, I think that there was one. We asked people whether they had been served in the language of their choice.
President and Chief Executive Officer, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
There cannot be any more than that.
Liberal
Lise Zarac Liberal LaSalle—Émard, QC
You stated that you received four complaints regarding the incident in question, three of which came from federations.
First of all, had you ever received any complaints from these federations, aside from the incident?
Chief Strategy Officer and Official Languages Champion, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
I don't recall.
President and Chief Executive Officer, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
They were about the public statement that had been made and for which I apologized earlier. I also apologized yesterday before a committee that was held here. Mr. Nadeau was present.
The individual who represented us and who was responsible for the public statements unfortunately indicated that, since this had occurred in Ontario, it wasn't really necessary to speak French. I acknowledge that this was a major, regrettable and unacceptable mistake. This individual, this individual's coordinators and supervisors, were told about this in a respectful fashion. This is not acceptable.
This is not our policy, regardless of where the train is. I have just given you the example from Manitoba. It is not every day that VIA Rail finds itself in court, being prosecuted by its employees, but all the same—
Liberal
Lise Zarac Liberal LaSalle—Émard, QC
You had discussions with representatives from the federations. What was the final outcome of these discussions?