Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, honourable members of the committee.
My name is Tracy Robinson, and I am president of Canadian National, or CN. I am accompanied by Sean Finn.
Thank you for inviting us to take part in this important discussion before the Standing Committee on Official Languages.
I've been taking courses to improve my French since joining CN three months ago. This is one of my priorities. I'm eager to become an active member of the Montreal community.
CN is an important facilitator of trade, being the only North American railway to connect the east and west coasts of Canada to the southern United States. We're proud to have had our head office in Montreal for more than a hundred years and proud of the fact that, since our privatization in 1995, CN continues to be governed by the Official Languages Act.
We are proud of the rich history of Quebec, where the official and common language is French.
We take our responsibility towards French very seriously and strive to provide our employees, our customers and our stakeholders with the ability to communicate with us in both official languages. We understand both the responsibility and the opportunity in supporting the French language. We appreciate the feedback that we receive on areas where we may fall short. It gives us the opportunity to continue to improve.
In this spirit, I've asked Mr. Finn to carry out a detailed review of our language practices and policies, and I've retained the services of the Lavery de Billy law firm to conduct an independent, third party assessment of our practices and provide me with recommendations for improvement. This advice will inform our ongoing work to ensure that we continue to fulfill our responsibilities.
While CN has operations across the continent, I am located in Montreal, and I've moved here from western Canada. My senior executive team is located in Montreal as well. Nearly two-thirds of the CN executives across our North American network and 90% of our executives in Quebec speak French.
Since Canadian National was privatized, we have had several francophone CEOs: Paul Tellier, Claude Mongeau, Luc Jobin and Jean‑Jacques Ruest.
At CN, all employees may use the official language of their choice and receive all communications from CN in that language.
The public can access our information line, where bilingual representatives will answer their questions and respond to their concerns.
For us, engaging with our customers and the communities across our network in the official language of their choice is not a burden but a competitive advantage
CN's board of directors respects the company's rich history in Quebec and views it with great pride.
CN has a long history of Quebec-based francophone representation on our board of directors. On January 25 we announced the appointment of the Honourable Jean Charest as a director. Monsieur Charest resigned on April 1. We regret that these timelines did not allow for a process to select a French-speaking candidate from Quebec in time for our May AGM. However, at the first meeting of CN's board of directors following the resignation of Monsieur Charest, the board announced that it had taken steps to appoint a French-speaking director from Quebec.
The board will appoint that person as soon as possible.
The search for a candidate is ongoing, and we are determined to deliver on our commitment.
Members of the committee, I am firmly committed to promoting a place of business and work in which the French language is strong and respected.
We are committed to meeting all of our obligations with respect to Canada's official languages. CN is very proud of our rich history in Quebec. We welcome and embrace our responsibility towards our employees and the community.
Thank you for your attention.
Mr. Finn and I will be pleased to answer your questions.
Thank you.