Mr. Chairman, honourable members, I answered the question that was put to me. The fact is that I've been doing this job for a month. I've been an employee of the Vancouver Airport for 32 years. I moreover started when we were under the federal government's responsibility. I was responsible for official languages programs for a number of years.
The reason I've been doing this job for a month, as Mr. Levy mentioned, is that we have a number of employees who have been working on it for a number of years. Official languages are part of our day-to-day work. I became a full-time but supplementary employee, and I must ensure that all the work that has been done is well coordinated. I admit that I spend part of my time working with my colleagues from Toronto, Ottawa and the Canada Border Services Agency. That has been my main job in recent months. I ensure that all the efforts that have been made are coordinated. I've had a lot of meetings with the airport's employees and companies. I hope that, if you went to our airport today, you definitely wouldn't hear “I don't speak French” at the information counter.
People have started to say “Hello, bonjour.” In case people forget, as the Ottawa airport people mentioned, the identification panels will be at all counters. We're working with the airlines and the franchisees, so that they also have at least one visual offer. I don't want to waste your time by explaining the percentages to you again, but if the person on site doesn't speak French, we also have an immediate telephone interpreter system. People who say bonjour will have direct assistance in French. We adopted the Lunch and Learn idea. I have a number of colleagues who, as you mentioned, are embarrassed because they think their French isn't good enough. However, it is good. I simply want to try to help them brush it up a bit and encourage them to speak French, to say bonjour. Many are simply embarrassed. So we're going to try to improve that aspect as well.