Evidence of meeting #8 for Official Languages in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was bilingual.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:25 a.m.
General Manager , Languages and Diversity, Employee Relations, Air Canada
I do not have the figure, but it is public.
10:25 a.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
We will find it. Having said that, you will see where I am going with this. I would be curious to know how much revenues and payroll expenses for senior management amount to. I don't know if the CEO's salary is public. I assume it should be, since the company is on the stock exchange in the United States as well.
10:30 a.m.
Assistant General Counsel, Law Branch, Air Canada
I don't, however, have this information at my fingertips.
10:30 a.m.
General Manager , Languages and Diversity, Employee Relations, Air Canada
It's available; it is published every year.
10:30 a.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
I don't know if any bonuses were paid to senior management in recent years, but I would like to compare the figures that I have asked you for to the $1.5 million that you spend on training. We will talk about this again at that point.
At the start of your presentation, you said this regarding Air Canada: “...we continue to invest considerable financial and human resources...”. Things should be put in perspective. In my view, with revenues probably in the billions, some might say that $1.5 million is not all that much.
Is a value attached to Air Canada's corporate name?
10:30 a.m.
Assistant General Counsel, Law Branch, Air Canada
I don't know if, under the accounting rules, it is considered a non-liquid asset.
10:30 a.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
I would assume so. It would be interesting to know what that value is. If there is one indeed associated with that. In other words, when Air Canada goes abroad, it implicitly represents a bilingual country, where there are two official languages. I would like to know if any value is attributed to that and if that was determined when the company was privatized.
Finally, Ms. McEvoy, I wish you a happy retirement.
10:30 a.m.
General Manager , Languages and Diversity, Employee Relations, Air Canada
That's nice of you.
10:30 a.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
If the Commissioner of Official Languages wanted to hire you, on a contract, to find a way to improve the situation at Air Canada, I wonder if you would be bound by professional secrecy, and if that were the case, for how long. You do not have to answer that.
10:30 a.m.
General Manager , Languages and Diversity, Employee Relations, Air Canada
That is kind of you. Thank you.
10:30 a.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Let me conclude with a brief comment directed to my colleague Mr. Godin and to others as well.
Mr. Godin spoke of the orange juice he asked for, but fortunately, it wasn't grapefruit juice because, in that case, they would certainly not have understood him.
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
Your calculations were right, Mr. Bélanger. They were within a second.
Now, shall we continue with Mr. Godin?
Have you any comments?
10:30 a.m.
General Manager , Languages and Diversity, Employee Relations, Air Canada
I would like to intervene.
10:30 a.m.
General Manager , Languages and Diversity, Employee Relations, Air Canada
They just passed out some announcements to me. I think that the recruiting service noticed the error that was in the other one. In fact, bilingualism is required in all the other cities. We could distribute it.
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
Just one moment. With your permission, I will have to get the assent of the members of the committee.
Do the committee members allow me to distribute the job offers that were published in the newspapers? Do I have the unanimous consent of the committee members regarding this?
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
This is why I want unanimous consent. I imagine that these things were posted—
10:30 a.m.
Bloc
10:30 a.m.
General Manager , Languages and Diversity, Employee Relations, Air Canada
It is only in French.
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
I am sorry madam, I would just like to conclude. I do not have unanimous consent, therefore I cannot allow the documents to be distributed, but you can refer to them and you can describe them ad nauseam.
Now, Mrs. Glover has a point of order.
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
Shelly Glover Conservative Saint Boniface, MB
The documents to which we referred this morning were not in both languages because these were advertisements. We distributed all of that this morning, and I do not understand the difference between this morning's notices and those that we're looking at now. These notices are—
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
Primarily, we distributed the two speeches. This document might have slipped in inadvertently. Normally, we thought that we had distributed the kit and that there were two official speeches. This document was included by happenstance. Theoretically, I should not have distributed this document because it is not in both official languages. This is the way we work in this committee.
Let us set back the clock to the beginning for Mr. Godin.
10:30 a.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
A little earlier, we did not intervene in the conversation, but we were not involved in partisan politics as was the case during this past minute. You can say whatever you want, when we have questions, we will put those questions. We expect to get answers. If the government wants to give a bouquet to Air Canada when the official languages commissioner says that the legislation is violated at a rate of 61%..., I am not ready to do that. If things were going all that well, we would not have invited you to come here. With all due respect, that is how things are.
My questions were quite good. When you say that you take the plane from Bathurst to go to Montreal and no one can speak to you in your own language, is that partisan politics? I have never seen anything like that. I hope that you will not be chair.
Who is responsible for tests at Jazz? You say that they have services to offer you. If I understand correctly, you buy services from them, and they have obligations toward Air Canada. Air Canada tells them that, because we are purchasing your services, here's what we need. In the case of a third party, who is responsible for ensuring that these people are bilingual in the same way as Air Canada is bilingual? The same skills must be required.
10:35 a.m.
General Manager , Languages and Diversity, Employee Relations, Air Canada
Jazz is now responsible for administering its own language tests, but given Jazz and Air Canada's past, the companies have done quite a lot of work together and share the same test. They also have the same criteria. A bilingual person at Jazz is considered as such at Air Canada.
