Official Languages Committee on April 13th, 2010

[Louise-Hélène Sénécal]

Airline operations are very expensive for us to run. We have a thin profit margin. We can't help but look at so many differences or inequities in the resources we have to deploy. It doesn't mean we're not proud and do not consider this as a service point. It's important to provide service to our customers in both official languages. As Ms. McEvoy indicated, it is one of our priorities. Be that as it may, the current framework does not provide for a level playing field with other carriers.

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

I'd like you to elaborate on the various challenges your organization faces with such things as hiring people and providing these services in both official languages.

[Louise McEvoy]

Our first challenge is recruitment. Over the years we find fewer and fewer truly bilingual candidates in the different regions of Canada. That makes hiring extremely difficult. We don't want to hire non-bilingual employees, but when we have to hire people, we feel that as soon as they come into the company we need to train them. We're not a school; we're an airline. We have many training activities and we train beginners, but ideally we would prefer to train for maintenance of skills to ensure that the people we hire, even if they're not fluent but bilingual qualified, can maintain their skills. That would be the ideal world.

When we feel that the number of employees we have in certain airports is sufficient and we cannot even hire in those stations, it makes it even more difficult for us, because it remains at a very low capacity bilingually.

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

With today's education system--I know that in the province of New Brunswick parents are striving to make sure their children are more bilingual and attend French immersion schools--perhaps we will be exposed to more bilingual students in the years to come.

[Louise McEvoy]

Yes. I must say we don't have that much of a problem in Quebec, New Brunswick, or Ontario. Toronto is a little different because we have problems finding bilingual candidates in Toronto. The problem is much bigger out west.

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

How are you working towards that? Are you giving any extra benefits if they are already bilingual? Is there anything to encourage them to become bilingual?

[Louise McEvoy]

When people are bilingual, as flight attendants or as airport agents, they can usually bid on better positions. For us, and for anybody with languages, it makes it a better situation whether they are airport employees or flight attendants.

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

Yes, I guess it's pretty much the same for all jobs.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Ms. O'Neill-Gordon.

We will now move on to Mr. D'Amours.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Hearing my Conservative colleague, who is from the same province as I am, ask such questions perplexes me. It makes me wonder whether the government intends to exempt Air Canada from certain restrictions or obligations. Time will tell.

Ms. McEvoy, you said that you have very little room to manoeuvre. The last time you appeared before the committee, both Mr. Godin and myself brought up the following point: in New Brunswick, one-third of the population is francophone. Within that group, many people are bilingual, and many anglophones are bilingual as well. So there is an excellent pool for potential bilingual staffing.

As for airport hiring for the summer of 2010, if you need staff in Calgary, you advertise the position only in Calgary because in New Brunswick or the Atlantic region, the service is provided by Jazz. But students may well be willing to move in order to take a summer job. Many of them apply for summer positions and obtain them. They do it to gain experience, for example, by coming to Ottawa to work on Parliament Hill every summer. They come from all across the country. They do not just come from Ottawa and neither do they necessarily study here. We are raising this possibility again, but, really, you keep trying to show us that you are unable to hire bilingual students. You are limiting yourselves by claiming that you are unable to hire students who come from other regions where there is potential in terms of bilingual candidates.

We're talking about bilingualism, but look at the example of your job ad published in Le Courrier de la Nouvelle-Écosse on Friday, March 26, 2010. Yes, the ad is in French, but the fact remains that there is nothing to say that bilingualism is a requirement. The ad will be read by francophones, fine, but if they are from Nova Scotia, there is a good chance that they will be able to express themselves in English. So, given that we are talking about bilingualism, why is it that there are no bilingual requirements in the documents you have shown us this morning? We are not talking about Jazz here, but about Air Canada. There are zero requirements in terms of bilingualism.

[Louise McEvoy]

But when you visit the Air Canada website, you can see the more specific requirements for the position. That is where candidates are referred, to www.AirCanada.com.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Ms. McEvoy, in rural areas, many people do not have access to the Internet. We mentioned this during your previous appearance before the committee. You expect everyone to visit the website to look for jobs, but if you put it on paper, there must be a reason why. You know that you have to try to reach a new clientele, but you do not even include bilingualism in the job requirements.

How much time do I have left, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Two minutes, actually.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Each time you appear here, you tell us that it's difficult. As I mentioned earlier, you say how little manoeuvring room you have in an attempt to justify the hiring problems. I would like to come back to something that has already been mentioned, the situation at VIA Rail. I am sure you will tell me that this company has fewer employees than yours, but you should maybe sit down with these people and ask them how they manage to ensure that 100% of their employees who have contact with the public are bilingual. Even if you had to hire 100 times more people, you should perhaps ask them how they go about it. I am sure they could give you tips that you could use. I hope we won't still be discussing this issue the next time we meet.

Lastly, you state that in the call centres, 59% of the employees are bilingual. So I assume that the 41% who are not, are unilingual. Would you say that the majority of them are anglophones?

[Louise McEvoy]

I would just like to answer that question about the hiring at VIA Rail.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

My question, Ms. McEvoy, because time is running out is: would you say that the majority of this 41% are anglophones?

[Louise McEvoy]

Yes, most of the 41% are undoubtedly anglophones.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

I am sure that call centres are not the only things that belong to Air Canada. Perhaps you should consider hiring subcontractors. Or have you ever considered...

[Louise McEvoy]

Not for plane reservations.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Have you ever thought of having call centres in my region, Madawaska, in New Brunswick, for example? You would have no trouble hiring francophones to provide services. When customers press two or one for service in French, the call would be transferred directly. It's all done by telephone today. People don't even need to knock on a door. The phone rings directly at the call centre in our region.

Have you ever thought of that so that you can guarantee that 100% of your services are bilingual and that francophones can receive service in French? I'm not talking about eliminating current jobs. Neither am I suggesting you fire the unilingual anglophones. That is not at all my intention. Have you ever thought of this?

[Louise McEvoy]

We have a call centre in Saint John, New Brunswick. The vast majority of the employees at that centre are bilingual.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. D'Amours.

We will now continue with Ms. Guay.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good morning, ladies; good morning, sir.

I have a few questions. We don't have much time in the second round, only five minutes, so I would appreciate brief answers because I have a number of questions. Ms. McEvoy, I would like to wish you a happy retirement, since you told us that you were leaving.

When Canadian was bought by Air Canada, we know that there were major problems in terms of bilingualism. What is the situation now?

[Louise McEvoy]

Our figures have not improved, especially at the airports, because no permanent employees have been hired at the airports since we merged with Canadian.

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

You are telling us that the situation is at a standstill, that things are not improving and that they are getting worse.