Official Languages Committee on March 21st, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Go ahead, Mr. Godin.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The French language is a subject that generates highly emotional debate because of the decline in French.

Mr. Rousseau, I would like you to reassure us. I would simply like you to tell us what concrete measures will be taken as of now. Air Canada has been going in the wrong direction for 45 years now.

Why should we believe Air Canada now when it tells us that the problem has been solved, that is it is on track to achieve effective results that will stop the decline of the French language within the company and move it in the right direction?

Could you please reassure me?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chairman, first of all, the percentage of employees at Air Canada who can speak both official languages has stayed the same or increased over the last several years. That is a reflection of our efforts to attempt to recruit and retain as many bilingual employees as possible. I think that's a good thing from our perspective.

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

Excuse me, Mr. Chair. I have a brief question. I still have 50 seconds.

My question is as follows and I'd like you to answer it.

You said earlier that your record was improving. On what indicators is this claim based?

[Michael Rousseau]

One of our key indicators, Mr. Chairman, is the number of complaints per number of customer interactions that we have. That ratio has been dropping. I understand from the commissioner's perspective that he's looking at raw numbers. We look at relative numbers in—

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Mr. Rousseau. I'm sorry to have to interrupt you.

Mr. Serré, you have five minutes.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank the Air Canada personnel and Mr. Rousseau for being here today.

As you did not have the opportunity to answer my colleague Mr. Godin's question, I'll continue in the same vein.

As you know, the past six months have been rather difficult. You have a plan, the Linguistic Action Plan 2020‑2023, and you are going to introduce measures to ensure that French is improved within your company. You gave a brief explanation of the activities introduced in response to the growing number of complaints in 2019.

What specific measures in terms of French resources and services are you currently taking under your linguistic action plan, and what measures do you intend to implement under the next linguistic action plan?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chair, let me first of all confirm that even during the darkest days of the pandemic, we were still committed, and we continue to be committed, to training our employees in both official languages. That is one resource we never touched during the pandemic, given its importance to Air Canada and to Canada.

From a specific perspective, again, we have a rigorous 2020-23 plan. As I mentioned earlier, recently we introduced three new measures: more training hours, a separate department for official languages which reports directly to the executive committee, and a series of incentives to try to recruit more bilingual employees. Those are three specific measures that have just been introduced, in addition to the other measures that were introduced, like ambassadors at the different airports and a management committee that oversees the progress we're making on the Official Languages Act.

There are a series of different initiatives that have been put in place over the last several years to improve our performance.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Mr. Rousseau, you mentioned earlier that you had brought back employees who had been laid off and that you had more or less re‑hired them. Needless to say, the past two years have been very difficult for you and other companies.

There is a shortage of employees in Canada and recruitment is very difficult. Can you tell us about your strategies for dealing with this?

How might the federal government help you attract francophones from other countries? Have you consulted any countries about this? What could the federal government do to facilitate Air Canada's recruitment of francophones?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chair, certainly we would love to have a discussion with the relevant departments in the government about recruiting from countries. We have that dialogue already, and I think those discussions are progressing.

To your first point, we did bring back the majority of our staff. We were lucky that the majority of our staff came back to us after being off for some period of time. From our perspective, we did not lose any—maybe none—of our bilingual employees, which I think is a testament to the Air Canada focus on bilingualism.

To your point about a difficult labour market, I totally agree; it is a difficult labour market. Certainly we would look to speak to the Canadian government about opportunities to bring in additional bilingual people, and we would certainly provide them a job offer as a condition.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

You have 20 seconds left, Mr. Serré. Is that it for you?

Thank you.

The next question will be asked by a new member.

Welcome to our committee, Mr. Tako Van Popta.

There are five minutes for you, my friend.

[Tako Van Popta, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Rousseau, for being here and spending time with us to discuss this very important topic.

Mr. Rousseau, I identified with your opening comment that your skills in the French language do not yet meet the effort you've put into it. I identify with that because, as a unilingual member of Parliament from Canada's west coast, I, too, feel that I need to learn French. I've been taking French lessons, and I know how difficult it is. It's a big challenge. Congratulations, and keep going.

Mr. Rousseau, the news of your unfortunate statement to the Montreal Chamber of Commerce last year made news even in British Columbia, where I'm from—a very unilingual British Columbia, I might add. It was news because people in B.C. are quite proud of being in a Canada that is bilingual and bicultural. I would say that is measured by how popular French immersion is in schools. There are just not enough chairs, not enough seats, not enough spaces available. If there's one thing that maybe comes out of this and your comments today, it's that there should be more emphasis put on French immersion, particularly when you're saying you can't even find enough employees who are bilingual. Perhaps that's a challenge for all of Canada,

Sir, you're saying that the bilingualism of Air Canada is important to you and to your company, but doesn't the inspiration for fulfilling a company's mandate and building on the strategic plan start from the top? How does your inability to speak fluent French impede your ability to inspire your employees?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chairman, I don't think it does impede my ability to inspire our employees. Certainly, by taking lessons, I hope, as I mentioned earlier, to show an example to all employees. What's important is my commitment and my focus on this very, very important issue, the discussions we have at the executive committee on it and what progress is being made. Our employees understand I'm committed to this. Our executive committee is committed to this. Our board of directors is committed to this. I think that's what's very, very important to inspire our employees.

[Tako Van Popta, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

I understand that Air Canada is the only airline company in Canada that is subject to the Official Languages Act. Do you see that as a competitive advantage or disadvantage? What are some of the challenges around that?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chairman, we see it as a competitive advantage. As I mentioned earlier, it is ingrained in our brand, our mission and our equity. The better we do with this, I'm convinced the better we do as a company. That's why there's a strong focus on this area.

[Tako Van Popta, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

Thank you. I didn't hear the last part of that answer.

As I said, I'm from British Columbia and have spent some time in Quebec and Montreal, but I don't understand the culture like, obviously, a resident would.

You did apologize to Quebeckers and francophones. Does that include English-speaking Quebeckers as well? Could you explain some of the dynamics around that?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chairman, first of all, I apologize to anyone who was insulted or hurt by the comments made on November 3, whether they are francophones across Canada or anglophones within or outside Quebec.

As to the anglophone community in Montreal, I really don't have a perspective at this point in time. My focus right now is learning to speak French and certainly returning Air Canada back to where it was in 2019. That's what I'm focused on.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you very much, Mr. Van Popta.

I'm going to exercise my privilege as chair to ask a few questions that were raised in connection with the answers you gave to my colleagues. My colleague Mr. Francis Drouin has given me his speaking time.

First of all, in response to Mr. Godin's question, you said that staff who could not speak French, whether at the airport, the check‑in counter, or on the plane, had learned to say "Un moment s'il vous plaît".

Do you consider that to be service in French that complies with the Official Languages Act or do you measure service in French as a function of the time required for a customer to receive the requested service? It might take a minute, 15 minutes, or a half-hour before a francophone attendant can provide the service, and sometimes, the service is never received.

Given that the Official Languages Act requires Air Canada to provide equal service to anglophones and francophones, how do you measure service in French?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chairman, first of all, it would not take 10 or 15 minutes to find a bilingual employee. As I said earlier, if we can't find a bilingual employee to respond to the customer in the language of their choice, then we can call a special number at the call centre where a francophone employee would respond to the customer. All that would be done within minutes, frankly, not 10 or 15 minutes. We know that typically customers are in a hurry, so we've put in this two-layered approach to ensure that we satisfy the customer in the language of their choice.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

You know very well, Mr. Rousseau, that if a customer is in a hurry and has to wait for three, four, or five minutes—based on my own experience, which has been that it sometimes takes longer than that—the service will end up being rendered in English.

Don't you think that a better way of handling this might be possible?

[Michael Rousseau]

Mr. Chairman, I don't disagree that once in a while an employee may respond in English, and that is not our policy: It's not how the employees have been trained. We will continue to think about ways to better deliver that service. We believe the way we have now is fairly efficient—

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Mr. Rousseau.

I have two other questions for you.

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

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

Are we going to be able to ask more questions?

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Yes, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mr. Rousseau, in 2016, we welcomed your predecessor, who told us exactly what you have said, which is that Air Canada has trouble recruiting bilingual employees.

What has changed since 2016 in how Air Canada goes about recruiting bilingual employees? How has Air Canada's strategy changed?

[David Rheault]

Can I answer your question, Mr. Chair?