Official Languages Committee on April 13th, 2010

[Louise McEvoy]

When we receive a complaint from the Commissioner of Official Languages, the complainant remains anonymous. Sometimes we manage to obtain the complainant's authorization, which helps us pursue the investigation.

However, we often have enough information, such as the date, flight number or destination, for which flight and so on, to determine who the complaint is targeting, that is which employee or which branch. Then, as I said earlier, the person is contacted individually by his branch director. Of course, the investigation is completed first.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Are you referring to the employee?

[Louise McEvoy]

I am referring to the employee.

Then, we submit our response to the commissioner in accordance with the inquiry that has been completed.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Do the complaints specifically concern the quality of the French spoken or the quality of the service provided in French? Because I see a difference between the two.

[Louise McEvoy]

So do I. No, we never receive complaints about the quality of the French spoken. Even if someone is not fluently bilingual, the effort that is made is always greatly appreciated by our customers.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

I see that you have a new training session that helps anglophones who do not speak French to at least tell the customer to wait one moment while they find someone who can speak French. So the usual procedure is to go and find someone.

[Louise McEvoy]

Yes, exactly.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Do you give promotions to employees who are not bilingual?

For example, we know that VIA Rail has a system whereby bilingual employees can receive promotions. It was mentioned briefly earlier. There was a sub-question on it. Have you done the same thing?

[Louise McEvoy]

It depends on the position. If the position has no language requirements, then it's open to everybody. If not, then no.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

I would like to come back to the number of complaints, which intrigues me somewhat. Unfortunately, we do not have the figures for the years leading up to 2007. There were major corporate changes at Air Canada around the year 2000.

I would like to know the total number of complaints that have been filed since 2000.

[Louise McEvoy]

We can certainly get that for you, yes.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Even though you don't necessarily have that information this morning, can you tell me whether things have improved, that is, whether the number of complaints has declined, or whether it varies from one year to another?

[Louise McEvoy]

There was an increase at a certain time, coinciding with the advent of email and the many electronic and computer devices we have today. However, there has indeed been a drop over the past few years.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

I took the plane last week, and I was extremely well served, in both languages, in fact.

[Louise McEvoy]

That's great. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Généreux.

We will finish the second round with Mr. Godin.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Let's come back to the business of complaints.

On March 11, I was on a flight between Montreal and Bathurst. Was it even possible to find a bilingual person, on that particular flight, AC 8742—I believe that “AC” means “Air Canada”—operated by Jazz—I don't need you to explain that you are with Jazz—who could just say: “Excuse me, one moment please”? Where would you find someone like that? Would you need to stop in Quebec City?

[Louise McEvoy]

No. On Jazz flights which have a crew based in Montreal, employees should be bilingual.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

They are not all based in Montreal. Some are from Halifax. Are we talking about Jazz, yes or no?

[Louise McEvoy]

Generally, flights which leave Montreal—

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

In Bathurst, in Acadie-Bathurst, 80% of people are francophone. In Montreal, there are 6 million francophones out of a population of 7 million.

[Louise McEvoy]

It's a flight which must be bilingual.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

If you stop in Quebec to pick up a French-speaking crew member, that's nearly 90%.

[Louise McEvoy]

Yes, indeed, there have to be bilingual crew members.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Again, on March 29—I filed a complaint with Air Canada and sent a copy to the Commissioner of Official Languages, because it doesn't really matter who I am—it was the same complaint. I asked for a glass of orange juice, and I received a glass of water. “Jus d'orange” and orange, it basically sounds the same. It's as if you went to Tim Hortons and asked for a coffee, and you were told: “I don't speak French”, because no one understood the word “coffee”. You say: “It is foggy outside”, and the person replies: “Yes, there's still a lot of snow.” I'm sorry, but this is not serious. It's a circus.