Official Languages Committee on May 4th, 2017

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Nothing like that existed then. They were just starting to open the first French-language common law faculties.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mr. Arseneault.

Your turn, Mr. Choquette.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to continue along the same lines as Ms. Lapointe and talk about access to justice as it affects the RCMP.

I am sure you have read an article in the media lately about a motorist's challenge in Manitoba, north of Winnipeg. The staff of the Selkirk detachment, around St-Pierre-Jolys, is designated as bilingual. But there are problems with assigning bilingual RCMP officers there.

Do we have problems in Canada with RCMP services in both official languages? Our study is about access to justice in both official languages and actually, in a number of Canadian provinces, RCMP officers are the first people in the justice system we have to deal with. Have studies been done that give us a picture of the situation?

[Ghislaine Saikaley]

We receive very few complaints about the RCMP.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Okay.

[Ghislaine Saikaley]

We looked at doing an audit, but we more or less set it aside because we did not see any urgency in it.

I read the article in the paper this morning, as you did. The problem is always the same. A number of organizations seemingly do not have enough bilingual employees. As a result, if someone who can provide a service in the minority language is not there, the service can no longer be provided in that language.

The situation is the same with the Canada Border Services Agency, the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority and other similar organizations. They do not seem to correctly assess the bilingual staff they must have to meet the needs.

At the moment, we are not looking to do anything special about the RCMP. Certainly, we could receive a complaint about them.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

If you got a complaint about the RCMP, there would probably be an investigation.

[Ghislaine Saikaley]

Yes.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Thank you, Ms. Saikaley.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Mr. Choquette.

We are going to suspend the meeting for a few minutes. When we resume, we will start our discussion of air transportation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

We will resume the meeting with testimony from the Commissioner of Official Languages. We will be dealing with the audit conducted by the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages into the services provided to the travelling public by the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority.

Once again, Madam Commissioner, we will listen to you for 10 minutes or so. After that we will go around the table.

The floor is yours.

[Ghislaine Saikaley]

Mr. Chair, members of Standing Committee on Official Languages, thank you for giving me the opportunity to present my audit report on bilingual services to the travelling public provided by the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, CATSA, published only a few weeks ago.

CATSA is a relatively young organization. It was established as an agent crown corporation in 2002. Since then my office has conducted several exercises to help the institution understand and meet its official languages obligations.

In 2012, as part of an exercise regarding the language rights of the travelling public in airports, the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages conducted observations of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority at eight international airports.

The organization received perfect scores for visual active offer. However, it needed to do better in terms of in-person active offer and availability of service in the official language of the linguistic minority. Despite that, in 2014-2015, among the organizations examined, it was ranked second for the most complaints filed with the Office of the Commissioner. The complaints, related to communications with the public, were filed under Part IV of the Official Languages Act.

My office therefore conducted an audit of CATSA from December 2015 to March 2016 to determine to what extent it was meeting its language obligations to the travelling public.

Airport security screening officers, who are, in fact, third-party service providers acting on behalf of CATSA, have a demanding job with very specific tasks. The first priority in their work is to ensure the safety and security of the travelling public in airports.

Before passengers or their belongings enter the secure area of a Canadian airport, they are screened by these officers at airport screening checkpoints. This is a mandatory part of the pre-boarding process for the travelling public. These screening officers must meet the appropriate language obligations and Transport Canada standards.

An active offer of service in both official languages at screening checkpoints points is particularly important in situations where the people providing a service hold a position of authority. An active offer of bilingual services is of prime importance. Travellers have to know that services are available in both official languages and that, from the outset, they can use English or French in their interactions with the screening officers.

The audit looked primarily at CATSA's first area of activity: the screening of passengers, their carry-on baggage and their personal belongings at screening checkpoints in class 1 airports, those with at least 1 million passengers, which are required to provide services in both official languages under the act.

The audit had four objectives: to verify whether CATSA senior management is committed to implementing part IV of the act, which governs communications with and services to the public in order to guarantee that passengers have the opportunity to be served in the official language of their choice; to verify whether CATSA has formal mechanisms for active offer and for ensuring that services of equal quality in English and French are provided during all steps of the airport security screening process; to verify whether CATSA takes the needs of official language minority communities into account in the planning of its bilingual services; and to verify whether CATSA effectively monitors the delivery of services of equal quality in English and French by the third-party service providers who are contracted to provide services at screening checkpoints in airports.

The audit revealed that CATSA's senior management has made a number of efforts to integrate official languages into its work, in accordance with the principles and responsibilities set out in CATSA's official language policy. Despite the efforts to clearly communicate its official languages obligations to all employees of service providers, CATSA's screening officers do not always greet the travelling public in both official languages and the available services are not always of equal quality in both official languages. The language skills of screening officers are not evaluated in the same way by the different service providers throughout Canada.

There is also no consistency in the training that these service providers offer to the screening officers with respect to official languages. CATSA does not know the optimal number of employees necessary in order to ensure bilingual services at all times, and the current standard set out in the language clauses does not guarantee services of equal quality in both official languages.

CATSA does not consult official language minority communities regarding services. It checks passenger satisfaction with the services provided in the preferred official language. However, only a small number of francophones are surveyed, and the current methodology makes it difficult to determine the accuracy of the results regarding services provided to francophones.

CATSA has conducted an evaluation of the quality of services provided to the travelling public, and it included an official languages component. Appendix B of the audit lists my 15 recommendations and includes CATSA's comments and action plan, as well as my own comments.

I am largely satisfied with the measures and timelines proposed by CATSA. Its action plan is capable of greatly improving the institution's performance and concretely improving service to passengers. I encourage CATSA to continue its reflection concerning the measures proposed in response to recommendation 3, which calls for CATSA to review the linguistic identification of the positions of directors and general managers in the regions, and to recommendation 8, which calls for CATSA to review its official languages standards under the Contract Compliance Program. Furthermore, I encourage the institution to make the consequences of failing to meet these new standards consistent across all regions.

Ultimately, CATSA must fully implement all of the recommendations in the audit report in order to meet its obligations under the act in terms of communications with and services to the public in both official languages. My office will conduct a follow-up of the recommendations in the next 18 to 24 months.

I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Madam Commissioner.

We will now begin immediately with Mr. Bernard Généreux.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you again to our witnesses.

Madam Commissioner, page 5 of the document in French discusses services that are not always of equal quality. You make reference here to the quality of services that are not being offered to the population in French and in English. How are you able to assess that the service is not equal? Is this about the quality of service in French or in English?

[Ghislaine Saikaley]

It may certainly be that, or that may still happen when there is no bilingual officer at each line, for example. In such a case, you have to do business with another person. You have to interrupt the service and ask a colleague to come and provide the service. So this is not a service of equal quality, because the person has to wait to receive service. Sometimes this can take a while.

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

In Canada, there are six international airports with over one million travelers. Is that correct?

[Ghislaine Saikaley]

There are more than that, but we studied only six of them.

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

You studied only six of them, so the report takes into account what you have observed in six airports.

[Ghislaine Saikaley]

Yes.

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

You say that, in spite of all the efforts that have been made, they ranked second, among those you analyzed, with respect to the percentage of complaints received. When it comes to the percentage of complaints received, I imagine that in all of the Canadian airports—not just the six that you studied—the number of travelers is in the millions.

[Ghislaine Saikaley]

That is correct.

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

What is the percentage of complaints you received compared to the total number of travelers? Do you have any idea?

[Ghislaine Saikaley]

I do not have the percentage.

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

Are you able to estimate it?

[Ghislaine Saikaley]

It is a very small percentage, that is certain. During the last year, we are talking about 30 complaints out of 60 million passengers.