Official Languages Committee on April 15th, 2010

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Totally.

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

Okay. Then later on you said they should follow the law as closely as possible. Are you opening the door to them not having to follow the law completely? You said “as closely as possible”.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

I want to see them make their best efforts at inputs, and as I suggested earlier in my comments, at the end of the day, we want them to be providing decent services, particularly to the public, as far as their obligations go.

No one in any area--maybe in the New Democratic Party, but not in the rest of the world--is going to perform at 100%, but we want to see them get better results. That is important. I don't think anyone will ever be perfect, but they can do a better job than they're doing now.

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

They're surely not perfect on this one.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

No one argues with that.

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

Okay, so you're not arguing with that.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Absolutely, they can do a better job.

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

Do you intend in that bill to make sure that Jazz, even if it's a third party, is under the same law and the federal government could go to them directly if they're violating the law?

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

We have to look at that, but right now—today—Air Canada has a legal obligation under the Air Canada Public Participation Act and under the Official Languages Act for their contractors. If they're not following that law today, we could add more law, we can strengthen the law, but if they're not following that--

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

What punishment could they get?

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Compliance and the instruments of compliance are obviously important. We'd have to structure it accordingly.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Godin.

We are now at the end of our second round and the hour we had with you, Minister. I want to thank you on behalf of the members of the committee for appearing at our committee with your witnesses.

There was a question of rapidity in the last hour. I want to acknowledge the fact that you quickly answered our invitation and came swiftly to meet with us on this important matter.

We will continue with our work. We have a motion to discuss.

Thank you, Minister, for appearing at our committee.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Thank you. I appreciate your enthusiasm and cooperation.

In my past vocation, I never thought I would be a federal cabinet minister sitting before a parliamentary committee and have a Bloc Québécois member say, “I'm here to help.”

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

We will now move on to the motion.

Before we conclude this meeting, I would invite the members to take a stand on the motion. I will read it aloud. It was forwarded to me in both official languages, so I may proceed.

The motion we are discussing is:

That the Standing Committee on Official Languages invite the Minister of Transport to submit a bill regarding the compliance of Air Canada and its partners with the Official Languages Act so that it will be studied by the Standing Committee on Official Languages this spring.

Are there any questions or comments on the motion before us?

Mr. Godin.

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

Mr. Chair, I do not know whether we need to indicate our support, but I will be supporting the motion.

I do not know if it requires an amendment, but I suggest that the motion be presented to the House of Commons.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

There is no need to amend the motion as is, but that can be taken into account.

Are there any other questions or comments on the motion?

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

Could I ask you to read it again?

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

The motion, as translated, reads as follows:

That the Standing Committee on Official Languages invite the Minister of Transport to introduce a bill regarding the application of the Official Languages Act to Air Canada, its subsidiaries and partners so that the committee may study the bill this spring.

Ms. Guay.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

First of all, I would simply say that the objective here is to provide the minister with the tools and the committee's support through the motion in order for him to introduce a bill.

Second, we have tried to come up with solutions to improve the situation through whatever means, even with the help of the official languages commissioner. However, the only way to succeed is by introducing a bill. I think that even the minister has demonstrated that a bill was needed and hoped that we moved such a motion.

I would invite my colleagues opposite to support the motion, since their own minister agreed with it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you.

If there are no further comments, we will now vote on the motion.

(The motion carries unanimously)

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Mr. Chair, I would like to echo the comments made by Mr. Godin. I suggest that you report the matter to the House.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Does the committee want to present the motion to the House?

[Some voices]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Are there any questions or comments? I will therefore present a report.

That said, we will adjourn the meeting. I would invite members of the steering committee to remain.

Go ahead, Mrs. Zarac.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

I simply want to make a comment. I thought that it had been made clear that the committee hoped to meet with the minister for two hours.

I understand that ministers are very busy and that they have other things to do, but we have a lot of questions to ask. The minister himself has chastised us for not inviting him more often. We should be able to take advantage of his presence and have enough time to exhaust all of our questions for him.

I simply want to point out that we had indicated our preference for a two-hour meeting with him in order to have enough time to question him.