Thank you for that important question.
As I said at the outset, I spoke with many stakeholders, including the Commissioner of Official Languages. The decision to impose monetary penalties was made at the request of the commissioner himself. As we all know, many companies such as Air Canada, which I'll use as an example, are subject to numerous complaints, as the commissioner told us. The commissioner wanted another tool at his disposal: the power to impose monetary penalties. He expressly asked that we choose a sector where companies have contact with the travelling public.
I worked with the Minister of Transport, Mr. Alghabra, in the course of our deliberations. We looked at which companies were already affected by the issue and already subject to the Official Languages Act. We examined specific companies such as Air Canada, VIA Rail and Marine Atlantic, as well as the airport authorities, because they were viewed as having contact with travellers.
However, I want to make it clear that the tools we gave the Commissioner of Official Languages include more than monetary penalties. There's the whole matter of informal mediation…