Evidence of meeting #20 for Official Languages in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was languages.
A video is available from Parliament.
June 15th, 2016 / 5:05 p.m.
Assistant General Counsel, Law Branch, Air Canada
That is the equivalent of one and a half persons.
5:05 p.m.
Director, Government Affairs and Community Relations, Air Canada
Of course, the translation budget for all of the Air Canada documents and its website is not included in that. Those are additional amounts. Yes, we have to respect our obligations under the act, but we also have to provide quality bilingual service to our clients.
5:10 p.m.
Assistant General Counsel, Law Branch, Air Canada
That includes staff salaries while they are taking courses.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Do the employees who work full time on complaints related to the Official Languages Act keep a record of the number of complaints they receive annually? If you pay one and a half employees per year for this, it means there must be complaints.
5:10 p.m.
Assistant General Counsel, Law Branch, Air Canada
That person processes files with the Official Languages Commissioner. They speak twice a week. That person works in cooperation with the Commissioner of Official Languages.
5:10 p.m.
Director, Government Affairs and Community Relations, Air Canada
However, these employees also do other things. The employees who process complaints related to official languages also have other mandates. This means that the employee processes the complaints, but their job description contains other aspects related to that.
Let's say there were 50 complaints a year. Often, this requires a lot of correspondence. It requires an investigative process. We have to check to see what happened, a task that is not easy, because often we are only informed of the complaint several months after the event in question.
5:10 p.m.
Assistant General Counsel, Law Branch, Air Canada
Or a year later, sometimes.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
I don't want to repeat what I asked you earlier, but is there some way of knowing exactly how many complaints you receive in your offices? I am talking about the ones that go directly to Air Canada offices.
5:10 p.m.
Director, Government Affairs and Community Relations, Air Canada
We committed to looking into that and providing information to the clerk.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
That's good, perfect.
Is there also some way of providing a copy of your recruitment program?
5:10 p.m.
Director, Government Affairs and Community Relations, Air Canada
Which program?
5:10 p.m.
Assistant General Counsel, Law Branch, Air Canada
We do not have any document that is entitled recruitment program as such—
5:10 p.m.
Director, Government Affairs and Community Relations, Air Canada
Could you specify what it is you are looking for exactly?
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
In your brief, you mention the recruitment program which you—
5:10 p.m.
Director, Government Affairs and Community Relations, Air Canada
When we referred to a recruitment program, I don't think we were talking about a document as such. You have to see this as a reference to all of the efforts we make to hire people.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis
And is there some way of providing us with a copy of your recruitment policy?
5:10 p.m.
Vice-President, Human Resources, Air Canada
I don't think so. We are going to check, but when we talk about a recruitment policy, it means that we explain to our recruitment team, as to all of our employees, what our language obligations are so that they understand, when they hire, that they must meet certain—
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Forgive me for interrupting you, but I have very little time.
You say that this is part of your $2-million expenditures, but in reality, these are not expenses at all.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
So you don't have a recruitment program or policy that costs you any money.
5:10 p.m.
Director, Government Affairs and Community Relations, Air Canada
I'll give you an actual example. Recently, we were looking for staff for the St. John's airport, in Newfoundland and Labrador. It's not easy to find bilingual people in St. John's, so we sent two people there. We dealt with a francophone association in the province to help us meet candidates. We took that step as part of our recruitment program and efforts. Now, is that initiative recorded in a document?
We undertake all kinds of ad hoc initiatives like that, as the need arises. We did the same thing in Calgary and Edmonton not that long ago. We sent personnel to French-speaking communities in Alberta to talk about our needs and try to recruit flight attendants. I don't know whether we—
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
I understand. I don't have a lot of time.
You've often pointed to the fact that other airlines in Canada are not under the same obligation and thus the same burden as Air Canada and that it's not quite fair competition-wise.
Have you ever measured the benefits Air Canada, the country's national air carrier, derives from providing bilingual service? Have you ever measured that? Do you have a mechanism to assess the added value providing bilingual service brings?