Official Languages Committee on Nov. 19th, 2009

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

I would ask you to defer the rest of your answer until later.

Thank you, Mr. Nadeau.

We'll now continue with Mr. Gravelle.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Good morning, Mr. Duguay.

When you hire people, do you ask that they be bilingual? If you hire someone who is already bilingual, that can help avoid a lot of problems in future. Could you tell me whether you make that special request?

[Yves Duguay]

You're referring to our screening officers, aren't you?

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

I'm referring to all your employees.

[Yves Duguay]

As I mentioned earlier, CATSA has a linguistic profile for each of its positions, and an analysis is conducted to determine whether the position must be bilingual. With the growth in our operations in the regions, 50% of the last positions filled in the past six months were filled by bilingual staff, from Vancouver to Halifax.

Now I'm going to talk to you about screening officers who are not our employees, but who are the employees of companies hired by CATSA to provide the services. Where they are concerned, there are incentives and contractual obligations for service contractors to hire people who are already bilingual.

Recently, our partner, Aeroguard Group, in Vancouver, managed to hire 20 bilingual individuals in the Vancouver region by requesting the aid and support of the francophone communities. In addition, we recently met with all the heads of our four main service contractors. We asked them to go and recruit people from the francophone communities outside Quebec. We had excellent results in Vancouver and Toronto.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

So you hired 20 bilingual individuals out of a total of how many?

[Yves Duguay]

In all, 70 persons were hired.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

That's not even 50% of the total.

[Yves Duguay]

No, it's not 50%, but, with regard to Vancouver, if you compare the situation to what it was before that, it's very good. It should not be forgotten that we need one bilingual person per screening post. So ideally, as Mr. Nadeau explained, when service is actively offered and a person asks to be served in French, there will always be at least one bilingual officer available.

We're currently examining the fact that, if there is one bilingual officer per screening post during peak periods and there are seven waiting lines at that post, that's probably not enough. So we're in a period where we are doing preparatory work for calls to tender for next year, and we intend to increase the criteria regarding the presence of bilingual officers at screening posts.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

You say you received 20 admissible complaints in 2007-2008. That's not a lot, but we know that not everyone complains.

I'm sure you won't be able to answer my question. How many persons complained? If 20 complained, that's far too many because I'm sure the number is much larger.

[Yves Duguay]

That's a very good argument, and I thank you for raising it. We're lack data. We've vastly improved our management system by going after data through our oversight officers. In fact, we lack public feedback. We're trying to develop a system in which travellers, when leaving the screening post, would have a 1-800 number or an instant messaging contact to give us their feedback.

The 24, 21 and 14 complaints received in recent years have been subject to the same investigation method, whether they concerned official languages or a security violation. I myself receive each of the complaints and each of the letters before responding to the people concerned. We take this matter very seriously because, for us, a complaint is used to improve our service.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Are you trying to have bilingual staff at every airport at all times?

[Yves Duguay]

We are required by the act to provide bilingual services at 38 of the 89 airports where we currently operate. In my address, I mentioned that, with the number of bilingual candidates we've been able to recruit and that will be transferred temporarily to Vancouver, we'll be able to offer bilingual services, even at the temporary sites, in the two restricted regions, in the security areas in Vancouver. So that will enable us to increase our bilingual presence beyond what is required by the act.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much, Mr. Gravelle.

I have a brief question. You say that there is one bilingual employee per screening point. How many employees are there at a screening point?

[Yves Duguay]

That will vary during the day, depending whether you're talking about peak hours or not. For example, at Ottawa airport, if six lines are open at the same time, we can have 24 to 30 employees at a time. It varies. That's the minimum.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

At one screening point, there can be six lines. That means there is one bilingual employee. I think that's quite clear.

[Yves Duguay]

That's the minimum.

However, as I was explaining to Mr. Nadeau—

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

There isn't one bilingual employee per line.

On a line, how many people are there?

[Yves Duguay]

There are four or five persons, depending on the type of airport.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

There are four or five persons per screening line and one screening point can have as many as six lines. There's one bilingual employee per screening point. That can go up to six lines.

[Yves Duguay]

Yes, and 17% of screening officers are bilingual. There is always more than one bilingual person at a screening point.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Did you say that 17% of your employees are bilingual?

[Yves Duguay]

Seventeen percent of screening officers are bilingual.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

So that's 17% of 6,000 persons. That's perfect.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Just to be clear, there isn't one bilingual employee per line, is there?