Official Languages Committee on March 21st, 2022

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Greetings to all the members of the committee, and thanks to the witnesses for being here today.

Mr. Rousseau, it's my understanding that, before the speech you gave in Montreal—I'll go back over this very briefly—the Quebec government and the Commissioner of Official Languages warned you of the danger involved in testifying and delivering a speech in English only. Do you agree with that statement?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chair, ultimately I made the decision to attend and speak at the event. My intentions were absolutely sincere.

It's a very challenging time for Air Canada. I wanted to update the business community and our many partners in Montreal about our plans for the future. We are an integral part of the community in Montreal. We have been instrumental in making Montreal airport one of the busiest airports in North America.

I took the decision with very good intention, and I wanted to ensure that the audience at the event understood clearly what I needed to say. At that point in time, my French was not strong and so I chose to do the speech in English.

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

Mr. Chair, the Government of Canada is probably the slowest learner when it comes to respect for official languages, in every one of its departments. It constantly makes mistakes across all its websites. There are always things that don't work.

What's your take on the fact that, under Bill C‑13, the government would impose penalties on organizations subject to the Official Languages Act without itself being subject to that act? It's as though the teacher is worse than the student. It wants to punish the student, but not itself. That's one question.

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chair, we believe in a culture of continuous improvement and not penalties. We are a heavily regulated industry, with one of the primaries being safety, and so our focus would be more on continuous improvement.

If I can, I would like to defer that question to David Rheault, who is much closer to Bill C-13.

[David Rheault]

Thank you, Mr. Rousseau.

I'm essentially going to repeat what our president said. We truly believe that compliance with the act can't be achieved through penalties. For a business that has a scope and number of employees as large as Air Canada's, sustained effort is the way to go. We intervene at various levels, and we don't think that fining a private business such as ours will improve the situation.

We understand and think that the government could provide greater support to businesses that take Canadian bilingualism seriously. As Mr. Rousseau said, aspects of the bill tend in that direction.

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

What business in the Canadian transportation sector is subject to the Official Languages Act? There's probably Via Rail, but are there any others, apart from Air Canada and Via Rail?

[David Rheault]

There are the airports, Mr. Généreux. The airport authorities in Canada are subject to it. The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, or CATSA, the security service, is also subject to it, but other airlines currently have no official language obligations. That's why they can choose between the Quebec regime, for example, and the new obligations proposed under the bill. Air Canada doesn't have that choice because it's considered a federal institution within the meaning of the act.

The other point I wanted to add is that we have a francization certificate for all our operations, such as Air Canada Vacations, which are subject to provincial rules. However, we're the only business subject to the Official Languages Act at the federal level. Furthermore, the commissioner has said that complaints have been filed against carriers, particularly against Air Canada, but there can be no complaints against other air carriers because they have no official language obligations.

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

Mr. Rheault, the pandemic was hard on us, and on many entrepreneurs and businesses across Canada. What impact did that have on bilingualism and bilingual personnel? I imagine you had to lay off staff, including bilingual employees. Do you think you'll be able to rehire all those people, if you haven't already done so?

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

You have 15 seconds left.

[David Rheault]

Yes, absolutely. That's a good question. All the employees who were laid off have been called back because we're rebuilding the company. The aim of our strategy is also to review training in order to offer more intensive courses to raise the language levels of certain employees.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Mr. Rheault.

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

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Welcome, Mr. Rousseau.

What's the current situation regarding percentages of francophone and bilingual employees at Air Canada?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chairman, currently we have approximately 30,000 employees across the world, the majority of whom are in Canada, and almost 10,000 of whom are in Quebec, principally Montreal. We have approximately 40% who are fluently bilingual. These people have been tested—

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Pardon me for interrupting, Mr. Rousseau. I'm going to ask you my question again, and if you don't know the answer, please send us those numbers. You no doubt have a file for every employee, and since you provide bilingual service, every employee should have a kind of ID indicating the languages he or she can speak.

So I'd like to know the number of francophone employees in Quebec and the other provinces. I don't mean those who speak French, but rather those who are considered francophone. That's very different. Someone who speaks French isn't necessarily francophone.

How many employees are identified in their employee files as francophone or have declared themselves francophone on their job application forms?

Furthermore, in spite of the initiatives under the Official Languages Action Plan 2020‑23, an average of 80 complaints a year have been filed against Air Canada, particularly for not actively offering bilingual service or failing to provide service in French.

How is Air Canada planning to correct these official language deficiencies and to make constant efforts to resolve them in the short and long terms?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chairman, with respect to the first part of the question, we will provide the exact numbers on francophones. I don't have them right now. We'll provide a breakdown whichever way you would like it as soon as possible.

To the second part of the question regarding what we're doing about it, again, we have a very sophisticated and aggressive plan to train our employees in the second language and to hire as many bilingual personnel as we possibly can. We interact with francophone groups around the country to try to find that source of bilingual employees. It starts there. It starts with hiring a bilingual employee. To my earlier comments, that's why we're encouraged by the draft Bill C-13, which speaks about enhancing immigration and education, because that would help us hire more bilingual employees so that a larger percentage of our staff would be bilingual.

But I would say to the question that we do have a large number of bilingual staff within the company: 50% of our customer-facing employees are bilingual, which I feel is a fairly strong number. It could certainly get better with some of the suggestions I just mentioned.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Thank you for your two answers.

Could you provide us with details on the number of employees per year who enrol in French courses?

Does Air Canada pay for courses in French, English or other languages?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chairman, again I'll defer that detailed question to David Rheault, but certainly, from my perspective, I have no issue with providing that level of information to the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

You have 20 seconds left to answer, Mr. Rheault.

[David Rheault]

Sir, the courses are paid for by Air Canada. We can provide you with the details.

Air Canada has its own language teachers, who provide courses in French as well as courses in, I believe, 12 other languages. Those courses are also divided into various levels. Consequently, we have a full range of courses and are reviewing it so we can provide more options for our employees.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you very much, Mr. Rheault.

We will begin our third round of questions with Joël Godin.

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

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Rousseau, did the Commissioner of Official Languages warn you not to deliver a unilingual speech to the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chairman, again, ultimately I made the decision to attend and speak at that event and present the speech in English.

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Mr. Chair, I apologize for interrupting Mr. Rousseau, but I have five minutes of speaking time.

Mr. Rousseau, I'm asking you this question: did you have a discussion with the Commissioner of Official Languages in which you were advised that the speech should be made in both official languages? Had the Commissioner of Official Languages previously warned you that, when you are the president and chief executive officer of a business such as Air Canada, all public speeches must be subject to the Official Languages Act, meaning that they must be bilingual?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chairman, I did not speak to the commissioner myself. I'll defer that question to David Rheault who may have spoken to the commissioner.

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

No, there's no need for Mr. Rheault to answer, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

I do have another question for you, though.

Ms. Lattanzio asked some questions earlier about your Linguistic Action Plan 2020‑2023. You said that complaints to the official languages commissioner were indicators. Mr. Rheault replied that audits of linguistic performance programs were carried out on a regular basis .

That's where the problem lies: you conduct regular audits. Has Air Canada demonstrated any rigour in ensuring respect for the French language? That's what's discouraging, Mr. Rousseau.

Can you tell us whether you have a restrictive program in place to get results? Earlier, you said that you were doing your utmost. That's all very well. Lots of companies are doing their utmost. But rather than "doing its utmost", your company needs to take action to achieve results. That's what's discouraging, Mr. Rousseau.

We are all working together. We have nothing against you personally, but we want to protect the French language. That's the nub of the issue, which came to the fore in your scrum.

So can you reassure us and tell us how, and with what tools, you're going to protect French and prevent its decline?