Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Minister, thank you, and thank you to the people who came with you this morning.
It appears to be very difficult to amend the act. However, your government is a champion when it comes to quickly amending legislation so it can be included in the Budget Implementation Act. The official languages situation is very important. You say that your government supports official languages, but when the time comes to act, we don't really see any results.
You said two things. First, you distinguished between complaints made against Air Canada and those made against Jazz. It is surprising that your officials did not tell you that on Tuesday of this week, Air Canada representatives showed us a chart which clearly indicated the differences between complaints made against Air Canada's airline services and those made against Jazz. We have the results for 2008, 2009 and 2010, and we even asked the airline to provide us with the results from the beginning of 2000. So it is difficult to understand why you cannot bring forward a bill. I think it's high time we looked at all of these elements.
Further, it seems so hard to make corporate changes. Perhaps I could ask the committee's analysts to explain to you what the situation was before the last bill was passed, and what it is like today. You should have this information to help you prepare a bill in the coming weeks. You mentioned these two things. You don't have the data on the number of complaints made against Air Canada and Jazz. So we will give you that information. If it is necessary, we will show you how the company is different today compared to what it was like before. I am convinced that we will shortly be able to provide you with the second element you need to table your bill. You said you would have to talk about it to your parliamentary leader in the House. However, I think we can provide you with the two main elements which are problematic. In the end, this is all about respecting our official languages.
My colleague, Ms. Boucher, can certainly corroborate what I am about to say. It took nearly two years, after I raised the matter in committee and elsewhere, to have a sign changed inside Jazz's Dash planes. In English, the sign said: “Do not smoke in the lavatory”. In French, it said: “Ne pas fumer la toilette”, "Do not smoke the lavatory". I'm sure you understood the translation. It took two years of filing complaints with the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, and with Jazz and Air Canada, to make the appropriate changes. It's simply a matter of respect.
Mr. Minister, I would like you to be a bit more proactive. This morning, I was convinced that you would make a grand announcement, namely that a bill amending some provisions relating to Air Canada and the respect of official languages would be introduced this week. I am extremely disappointed. Indeed, usually you are more proactive. We see it all the time, but I think that in this case, you missed the boat, or rather, the flight.
Mr. Minister, I hope that you will consider these elements. If you still need specific details to draft such a bill, I'm sure the committee will be very pleased to get them to you.
I don't know if you have any time left, but I would like to hear your reaction.