Official Languages Committee on March 21st, 2022

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

That's good.

When you said you had always been able to live in Montreal without speaking French and that that was a testament to the city, weren't you simply reflecting what the Official Languages Act states, that people must have the right to be served and to work in English or French, even in Quebec?

We know that approximately 30% of anglophones in Quebec don't speak French.

Ultimately, don't you think you were simply reflecting a state of affairs that the Official Languages Act prescribes?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chairman, I admit I made a mistake by not learning to speak French when I joined Air Canada. I'm obviously correcting that mistake at this point in time. I look forward to being able to communicate much better in French with an appropriate accent over the next little while.

For me to participate fully in Quebec society, I recognize I must be able to speak French. That is my challenge. That is my commitment. That is my objective as soon as possible.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Would Air Canada be prepared to meet the requirements of Bill 101 rather than those of the Official Languages Act?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chairman, as you know, we are currently subject to the Official Languages Act because we operate across Canada and, frankly, across the world. Although we have some challenges and are continuously trying to improve our performance under the Official Languages Act, it is more appropriate given our scope of operations.

I'd like to defer the more detailed aspect of that question to David Rheault, who has been speaking to the Province of Quebec about Bill 101.

[David Rheault]

I'd like to expand on Mr. Rousseau's comments. The Official Languages Act is a comprehensive code governing the language rights of Air Canada passengers and employees, including the right to work and to be served in French in Quebec and Canada. Air Canada obviously focuses its efforts on meeting its obligations under the Official Languages Act.

That being said, some of the activities of the Air Canada family…

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Pardon me for interrupting, Mr. Rheault, but your six minutes are up. I try to do this as politely as possible. You could come back to this in response to further questions.

[David Rheault]

I understand. I'll be pleased to come back to it.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

The next question will be asked directly from Manitoba by Mrs. Ashton.

You have six minutes, Mrs. Ashton.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

First, I want to express my concerns. As we requested, today we have Mr. Rousseau, president and chief executive officer of Air Canada. We were expecting at least a minimum amount of effort on his part. However, half of his presentation wasn't in French, and none of his answers were either.

The purpose of this committee is to advocate the importance of French in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada, to ensure the administration of the Official Languages Act and to make sure that businesses and business sectors, including Air Canada, protect the use of French. Consequently, I want to tell you today that we're disappointed with Mr. Rousseau's presentation.

We have to look to the past, beyond last November to previous years, to help us understand the situation. As other members have said, Air Canada has demonstrated a systemic lack of respect for French. In 2016, former Commissioner of Official Languages Graham Fraser submitted to the committee a report in which he stated, “The vast majority of complaints are about language of service to the public.” He further noted, “Complainants also mention the negative attitude they get from Air Canada employees when they request service in French.”

Those lines were written in 2016. By the time, you'd been at the head of Air Canada for nearly 10 years. It's clear you still weren't taking what Mr. Fraser said seriously.

If that's the example you're setting, how can we expect Air Canada to respect French when providing its services?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chair, in response to the question, let me say first of all that Air Canada very much respects both official languages and the Official Languages Act.

We do our best to adhere to all of the rules. As we've spoken about before to many commissioners, the complexity of our business and the volume of interactions we have with customers give rises to the highest number...versus other companies, but we're not comparable to other companies.

I can commit to you, certainly in my 14 years with Air Canada, that there has been continuous investment in trying to improve our performance. We hire every bilingual flight attendant we can possibly get, and we'd like to have more. We hire as many bilingual employees as possible outside of the province of Quebec, which is a challenge given the current situation.

This bilingualism and this approach to both official languages is part of our brand and part of our equity, and we take it very, very seriously. We promote bilingualism across Canada. We partner with many different organizations to promote the French language in all parts of Canada. Certainly it is my commitment that this will continue, and it will improve as we continually find better ways of delivering service in both official languages.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

I'd like to tell you that we understand that. You're talking about an effort that's being made within the organization and you've apologized for your lack of sensitivity to the language issue in Quebec. However, I'd like you to answer the following question: what are you doing to improve the supply of language training courses for people who work for Air Canada?

That's not a theoretical question; it's more a practical, substantive question. We know that official languages commissioners have spoken clearly about the complaints that have been filed against you. So what is Air Canada doing to improve the provision of French-language services?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chair, since the report from Commissioner Fraser—and David Rheault can provide more details—I believe we've provided over 130,000 training hours to over 10,000 employees to learn how to speak French. We have substantial resources within the company to have anyone learn a second language.

David, can you provide some other details?

[David Rheault]

Yes, we have a comprehensive language program at Air Canada. We've offered more than 130,000 course hours to 10,000 employees since 2016. We also want to adapt our program to the new realities and needs of our employees. We do a lot of skill maintenance, by which I mean that people who are recognized as bilingual at advanced levels take sessions every year to retain what they've learned. Since it's hard to put this into practice in certain regions of the country, we offer special training to enable them to retain the knowledge they've acquired.

We've realized that it's increasingly difficult to recruit a bilingual labour force across the country as a result of the pandemic. Consequently, we'll be developing new course offerings so that people can reach higher levels and be recognized as bilingual. What we're doing…

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Mr. Rheault. I apologize for interrupting once again. Time goes by so quickly. Your six minutes were already up.

We now go to the second round of questions, in which speakers will be allotted five minutes.

Mr. Gourde, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lévis—Lotbinière, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Rousseau, thank you for having the courage to appear before the Standing Committee on Official Languages.

Mr. Rheault just told us that 130,000 training hours have been offered to 10,000 employees. Based on a quick calculation, that means 13 hours per employee. You're currently taking French courses. Do you really think only 13 hours of training can make a difference in the skills employees acquire?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chairman, I'd like to delegate to David on that more detailed question.

[David Rheault]

That's a very good question.

Thank you, Mr. Rousseau…

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lévis—Lotbinière, QC]

Pardon me, but I asked Mr. Rousseau a question. Since he's currently taking courses, he knows it's very hard for a unilingual anglophone to learn French.

Is a total of 13 hours enough to improve the language skills of Air Canada employees who provide services to francophones? Air Canada could increase the number of hours to 130. Thirteen hours is really ridiculous.

Mr. Rousseau, as president and chief executive officer of Air Canada, you're in a position to answer that question. You know it's hard to learn French. Is 13 hours of training enough?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chairman, for an anglophone to learn French in 13 hours would be very difficult. Again, I think the math has to be explained by David Rheault.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lévis—Lotbinière, QC]

Pardon me. We'll move on to another subject.

Mr. Rousseau, you understand that training is important. Many Air Canada employees were laid off during the pandemic because there were no flights. There were no operations, as we all know. However, there were programs to provide more training.

Was Air Canada able to use the Canadian government's programs? Did you receive money from the federal government to pay employees during that time? Could employees have been paid by the Canadian government to improve their French?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chairman, there is no doubt that the most difficult decision we had to make during the pandemic was to lay off almost 20,000 of our employees. Luckily and with good fortune, they're almost all back to work—the ones who chose to come back.

We accessed the CEWS fund, as many companies did, and we retained roughly 40% of our staff, yet during the pandemic we only flew about 10% of our regular flights from 2019.

The money for French-language classes and support was not part of those funds from the government. We've always funded separately the French-language aspects of our business. As CFO for 12 years, I certainly was always supportive of sufficient funding to meet our goals and objectives on the French-language file.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lévis—Lotbinière, QC]

Mr. Rousseau, since the Canadian government has always maintained relatively close relations with Air Canada and was quite generous with you and other businesses during the pandemic, couldn't you have returned the favour? This morning, the media informed us that Saint Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Church in Montreal needed air transportation to ship 40 tonnes of essential goods—clothing, pharmaceuticals and food—to Poland to aid refugees. However, it's all stuck in Montreal because no one's paying to ship it.

Since you've received hundreds of millions of dollars, even $1 billion, from the federal government, couldn't you have taken charge of shipping those essential goods to aid Ukrainian refugees?

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

You have 30 seconds left, Mr. Gourde.

[Michael Rousseau]

We've never relied on government assistance for humanitarian aid. Air Canada has a rich history of providing humanitarian aid all by itself in Haiti and in British Columbia, in response to the fires. A week and a half ago, we sent a 787 aircraft full of cargo to Warsaw for the Ukrainian situation.

We stand ready and we've spoken to several ministers about helping.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Mr. Rousseau. You can elaborate on your ideas later on in response to any further questions on the subject.

Ms. Lattanzio, you have the floor for five minutes.