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.
Assistant General Counsel, Law Branch, Air Canada
To my knowledge, all official languages complaints are also filed with the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages.
Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
In my view, if those complaints represent 10%, that’s a lot. It must be said that a lot of people complain, but they will not file an official complaint, as that would involve additional costs because of judges and lawyers.
Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
I feel there must be at least 10 times more internal complaints.
Assistant General Counsel, Law Branch, Air Canada
That would be surprising. We will check whether there are statistics on the matter.
Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
I would appreciate that.
Let’s go back to what my colleague was saying earlier about collective agreements. The Official Languages Act takes precedence over collective agreements. You said that you would improve. Will you be taking steps in the near future to ensure that the Official Languages Act takes precedence over the collective agreement?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Air Canada
We said that we would follow what is in the action plan.
Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
Yes, measures are specified in the action plan.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Air Canada
Yes, they are already indicated and set out in the action plan.
Director, Government Affairs and Community Relations, Air Canada
In fact, some provisions in the collective agreements already require us to comply with the Official Languages Act. We are trying to improve that.
Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
Yes, but the commissioner's report states that Air Canada uses as an excuse the fact that collective agreements limit its ability to comply with the act. It says so in the report.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Air Canada
He says that it is an excuse, but it is not an excuse for us. It’s as simple as that.
Director, Government Affairs and Community Relations, Air Canada
Let me read a passage from the commissioner's 2011 report:
We recognize that Air Canada is making an effort to ensure that there is always at least one bilingual flight attendant on board each flight, and two on larger aircraft. During a review of over 80 lists of crew working on multiple flights, we were able to verify this practice.
Those rules are already set out in the collective agreement.
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île dOrléans—Charlevoix, QC
Good afternoon, everyone.
I feel that I’m reliving an old dream, watching an old film again. I was here between 2006 and 2011, and we were having the same discussions. In 2016, I am back here, and we are talking about the same issues.
I have read every possible report on Air Canada. Just recently, we travelled to our convention in Vancouver. During the flight between Montreal and Vancouver, the three people working on board spoke English only. At one point, my colleague sitting next to me asked for a glass of water and was told: “I'm sorry, I don't speak French.” That was three weeks ago.
It is unthinkable that, in 2016, someone, whether they are bilingual or not, does not understand what “un verre d’eau” means. I can imagine that it is difficult to comply with the Official Languages Act, but two languages are recognized in Canada: French and English. In 2016, we should not still be fighting to be served in our own language. After 50 years, six official languages commissioners, a thousand complaints and so many recommendations, I take a step back and say to myself that these people clearly don’t get it.
What have you learned during all these years since the Official Languages Act came into force and from all the recommendations made by all these parliamentarians?
I should perhaps ask you instead what you don't understand about being an entity subject to the Official Languages Act. At some point, this can become a little irritating for the average person.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Air Canada
First, in terms of the situation you are describing, I would ask that you allow our people to do the necessary checks. It is surprising. Perhaps it's a situation we are not aware of. As you can imagine, given the number of flights, I can't tell you what happened in that case. Ms. Meloul will be able to look into that. As I said earlier, we may have not been able to find someone to replace an employee who was sick. I don’t know.
That said, in his 2012-2013 report, our friend the commissioner said the following:
Air Canada has also improved its performance since 2008. In 2012, the visual active offer was present 100% of the time in five airports. In the other three airports, Air Canada received close to perfect scores for visual active offer. The national carrier also scored high marks for availability of service in the official language of the linguistic minority.
And it goes on. I am not saying that it’s perfect, but the situation you are describing on the flight between Montreal and Vancouver is really an exception. That should not happen. As in many cases, someone did something they should not have done.
The commitment is firm. However, for the industry, the standards need to be reasonable and everyone needs to understand them. People need to be aware of the expectations. Is the expectation for things to be perfect all the time or not? We propose that a committee or some kind of process be set up to improve bilingualism in the industry.
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île dOrléans—Charlevoix, QC
What would you do if the government implemented all the new recommendations of the report by the Commissioner of Official Languages? Would you comply with them?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Air Canada
We just said that we are against all that. We don’t think it’s appropriate. Our suggestion is that an entity with expertise in air transportation make the recommendations.
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île dOrléans—Charlevoix, QC
My understanding is that, if the government implemented all the recommendations, you would not agree to follow them, and that would be a definite no.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Air Canada
What I’m saying is that we are against the commissioner's recommendations. We will continue to discuss and work toward achieving a system that works a lot better than the current system.
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île dOrléans—Charlevoix, QC
Which system do you think would work best?
