Official Languages Committee on June 8th, 2017

[Pascale Giguère]

Air Canada is already subject to administrative monetary penalties through other entities, such as the Canadian Transportation Agency. We do not know whether that means additional costs on the ticket you buy, but Air Canada certainly has to remain competitive. To do so, it cannot keep increasing ticket prices.

[Michel Picard, Liberal, Montarville, QC]

Since we are talking about incentives, there's something I would like to know.

The Official Languages Act seems to be one of the things that binds Air Canada to the government through its original agreement. Technically speaking, failure to do so could be a breach of contract. So the contract would lapse, which would jeopardize the very ownership of the company.

[Pascale Giguère]

Air Canada is not bound by a contractual relationship. In 1988, the government passed legislation to privatize Air Canada. Parliament was the one that decided to privatize Air Canada, so it has the power to take over the company. Again, Parliament is sovereign and it can pass any laws it wants. At the moment, since the relationship is not contractual, we cannot talk about a breach of contract.

[Michel Picard, Liberal, Montarville, QC]

Other than money, are there any coercive measures that could be used in Air Canada's case?

[Pascale Giguère]

Air Canada is a private company that operates in the airline industry. In this world, profits have to be generated, but the profit margin is relatively small and difficult to obtain. Money is often what determines the priorities of companies that operate in this highly competitive world.

[Michel Picard, Liberal, Montarville, QC]

Does the government have other tools through other departments or agencies? Am I going to have to call our provincial colleagues? For instance, could it strip Air Canada of routes, licenses, stripes on its planes, or anything else?

[Pascale Giguère]

Unfortunately, since the market has been deregulated and Air Canada is a private company, it would be difficult to take markets away from it. That would have been possible when it was a crown corporation.

From 1937 until the 1950s, the airline industry started to expand and the market was not very competitive. Air Canada took advantage of the fact that the government had set aside some market shares and routes for them; it gave it priority in this area. Now that it is a private company, it is the market that dictates which routes are taken up by one company or another.

[Michel Picard, Liberal, Montarville, QC]

Thank you.

That's all for me, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Généreux, the floor is yours.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

Ms. Giguère, you answered one of Mr. Arseneault's questions earlier and I really appreciated your honesty with respect to administrative monetary penalties.

Suppose that there are monetary penalties associated with the complaints, that each complaint gives rise to a penalty of $100 and that there are an average of 100 complaints a year. It would cost the company $10,000.

As you said earlier, Air Canada is a private company. So it must make profits to be able to reinvest in the business, maintain its competitive edge, and so on. Actually, the Air Canada folks could decide to pay the $10,000 in question and stop hiring bilingual people. They would inevitably weigh both possibilities to compare the financial implications.

Once again, I appreciate your honesty in mentioning this possibility. It is important to understand this. It is in fact a private company.

Earlier, you talked about witnesses that the committee could hear.

Who are those witnesses and where are they from?

[Pascale Giguère]

I think we have distributed a list.

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

Okay.

I imagine there are lawyers on that list.

[Pascale Giguère]

Yes.

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

Does the list include government lawyers?

[Pascale Giguère]

We included the deputy head of the institution. I imagine that person would be accompanied by his legal counsel.

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

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Mr. Généreux, we'll be taking a look at the list later.

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

Okay.

Mr. Marleau, you spoke about complaints that have been made against Air Canada since 1970. While the others were speaking, I amused myself by tallying up all the complaints that have been made between 1970 and 2017. There have been 6,518 complaints in that time. I may be a bit off, but that works out to about 133 complaints a year.

I just want to stress that we can say virtually anything about the numbers, from the perspective we're adopting. For the current year, the number of complaints is actually two and a half or three times higher than last year. However, I could also say that, although I'm not here to defend Air Canada, these figures are 30% lower than the average for the past 40 years.

In terms of the four options that the commissioner specified last year in his special report, I think it will be important to bring in additional witnesses. We are talking about complaints against Air Canada that have been filed since 1970. The number of complaints, the total number of complaints, and how Air Canada ranks relative to other institutions. We see that Air Canada is often first, second or third. It is rarely fourth or fifth.

Which institutions is Air Canada being compared to on this list?

Do you know which ones they are?

[Jean Marleau]

The situation changes from year to year, obviously. So there are different departments. In any event, the table clearly shows that the situation at Air Canada has remained problematic over the years. You talked about the number of complaints, but the fact is that Air Canada is still on that list. We also want to show you that our recommendations are not leading to any changes. Indeed, the same types of complaints return. In the history of the Office of the Commissioner, Air Canada has always been one of the top five on this list on which we record complaints. It is on the list again this year with a large number of complaints.

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

Last week, we found out that French was not popular on Parliament Hill or in the National Capital Region. It was in a CBC report, if I'm not mistaken. An example was a situation where only one person was English-speaking, while the other 10 were francophone, but where everyone ended up speaking English. That is the kind of example we often hear about. That's my case, since my sister works in the public sector. She has experienced that situation and does still.

Are complaints from other departments and agencies included in this?

In terms of official languages, it goes without saying that complaints other than those about Air Canada are filed in Canada.

Based on what we have heard, French is always undermined in the National Capital Region.

Does this give rise to complaints from other agencies and departments?

Was that brought to your attention?

[Jean Marleau]

There are certainly complaints that come from elsewhere, from departments, as you say.

Usually, half of the complaints—I'm make a lot of generalizations because we have been receiving them for several years—involve the public service. This was the case in 2016-17. The others had to do with various parts of the act.

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

Does this include Air Canada?

[Jean Marleau]

Yes. However, in terms of Air Canada, the complaints relate almost exclusively to service to the public.

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

So it's related more to situations on airplanes, where people haven't necessarily been able to speak to employees in French, for example.

[Jean Marleau]

That's it.