Evidence of meeting #24 for Official Languages in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was robinson.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:30 p.m.
Bloc
Mario Beaulieu Bloc La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC
At any event, I want to take time to look at this. We'll discuss it and then see what happens.
5:30 p.m.
Liberal
5:30 p.m.
Liberal
Patricia Lattanzio Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Mr. Chair, I wanted to ask a question.
Will the time my colleague used to discuss additional hours be subtracted from my speaking time? He addressed a procedural matter concerning all members of the committee. I'd also like to be able to ask my questions.
5:30 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
I apologize Ms. Lattanzio. You're absolutely right.
You have six minutes.
5:30 p.m.
Liberal
Patricia Lattanzio Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Robinson, for being present today. I have a couple questions.
Are French-language courses and lessons offered to your senior executives and board members? If so, are they mandatory? Are they expected to follow them?
5:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
Thank you for your question, Ms. Lattanzio.
Right now, as people like me are moved into Montreal and to Quebec, the employee or the spouse in the family is offered support to learn French, or if it's reversed, it's English. They're offered that support for a period of time until they become efficient in it.
Right now, three members of our board of directors speak French. Two members—the board chair, Shauneen Bruder, and I—are working very hard to become fluent in French. We will be shortly naming, as I mentioned, a francophone, Quebec-based director to our board, who will speak French. We do have a considerable representation on our board of French-speaking directors.
We do not require our board of directors to speak French. We are a company that is headquartered in Quebec, but we're a North American company. We have members on our board from both Canada and the United States. It is a preference but not an obligation to speak French.
5:35 p.m.
Liberal
Patricia Lattanzio Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Do you think that proficiency in both official languages should be part of the performance evaluation for senior executives?
Other than the linguistic abilities of an individual, what other qualifications do you look for when considering the appointment of board members?
5:35 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
Ninety per cent of our senior executives here in Quebec speak French. I am happy, as I arrive in this company, to observe the commitment to and the use of the language in this company. It's been helpful to me as I learn French to be able to participate in it each day as I come to the office.
What was the second question again?
5:35 p.m.
Liberal
Patricia Lattanzio Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Other than the linguistic ability, what other qualifications do you look for when considering the appointment of board members?
5:35 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
Our board spends a considerable amount of time working through what qualifications—backgrounds, experiences and credentials—we need to bring to bear to ensure that we have proper governance for our company as we undertake our business across Canada and the United States, and across many different sectors. Our company is important for supporting both the health and the economy in Canada and North America, so it's important we bring a diversity of skill sets. Those are anything from financial to business to regulatory experience. The list goes on and on.
The board works very hard to make sure that the sum total of the experiences around the table are sufficient and are appropriate for managing the challenges and the opportunities before our company. It's a very complex piece of work. We spend a considerable amount of time on that.
5:35 p.m.
Liberal
Patricia Lattanzio Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Are you supportive of the official languages commissioner being granted additional powers to assess fines and issue orders to ensure there's compliance with regard to respecting the two official languages?
5:35 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
It's my intent, as I arrive in this company, to ensure that we completely fulfill our responsibilities in supporting and promoting the French language, and that we, and I, take a leadership role in this. It's my personal priority and it's a personal commitment that I've made.
As I come into the role, I'm working to determine where we are in the process. I see a strong commitment and strong use of French as I come in here. However, as I mentioned, I have asked Mr. Finn to conduct an internal assessment and to have an external third party legal review of our processes, our policies and the approach, so that I fully understand both where we are performing well and where the opportunities are to improve.
I know there are considerations before this committee as you consider Bill C-13. We will endeavour, as you do that, to ensure that we fully understand the parameters of what you bring forward, as well as all other legislation that applies to us. With the help of the reviews I've outlined, we'll be diligent in developing our plan to build the competencies we need and the processes we need to ensure that we continue to completely fulfill our responsibilities.
It's something that is very important to us and is a commitment we've made.
5:40 p.m.
Liberal
Patricia Lattanzio Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
What is the timeline of that review? What are the delays the Lavery law firm will be coming back to you with under the mandate that you gave it? Is there a timeline?
5:40 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
The internal review will be done fairly quickly. For the external review, as we have established the mandate, we are looking to the legal firm we have engaged to fully outline the time they need. We will give them the time to ensure that they can review our practices and our policies. They will have access to our people.
5:40 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
Thank you, Ms. Robinson.
You will be able to extend your answer through other questions.
The next questions will come from the second vice-chair of the committee.
Mr. Beaulieu, you have the floor for six minutes.
5:40 p.m.
Bloc
Mario Beaulieu Bloc La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC
Good afternoon, Ms. Robinson. Thank you for being with us.
To solve a problem, first you have to admit it exists. Do you agree that CN's history has been marked by discrimination against francophones?
5:40 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
I would say that, as I come into this company, I am observing a great deal of respect for the French language and support, not only in its usage every day, but in the discussions around how to use it. I'm surrounded by French in my work, whether it be at the head office here in Montreal or.... I was out in Taschereau yard, our rail yard in Montreal, a couple of weeks ago. I had the opportunity to speak to a number of employees in my beginner French. Some of them spoke French, some of them spoke English, and we were able to have a conversation respectfully. They were very gracious. I think that's the way we do this. We lead by demonstrating that we're willing and committed to using the language.
I will acknowledge we're not perfect. We have had cases. I've asked to review the cases where we have had exceptions. I understand that, over the last 10 years, we've had 11 complaints, four of which were determined to have some level of merit. We acted quickly to ensure that those were addressed. Since April, when we mailed our proxy, we've had seven complaints. Five of those were related to the board of directors. One was related to a presentation we had put on our website that hadn't been translated.
We're grateful to get that feedback. We rectified that. The other complaint was related to a file an employee had asked for that was not provided fully in the language of that employee's choice, and that's been rectified as well.
5:40 p.m.
Bloc
Mario Beaulieu Bloc La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC
You said that a francophone, Mr. Charest, in this instance, sat on your board. You also said you didn't have time to find another francophone.
Why does it take so long to find a francophone to sit on your board of directors?
5:40 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
Thank you for that very important question.
The matter is not around finding a francophone director that's based in Quebec. The matter is choosing the francophone director that is based in Quebec.
The search firm we have engaged on this topic is reviewing a large number of candidates, looking for the best candidate fit for us from the broader kind of evaluation of skills, competencies and background, and one whose schedule will fit with our schedule. We set our meetings five years in advance. That evaluation is taking place right now. It is more a matter of finding the right one.
5:40 p.m.
Bloc
Mario Beaulieu Bloc La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC
I see.
Do you think a single francophone on the board is enough? Normally, there'd have to be at least three francophones on the board if you wanted to reflect Canada's linguistic diversity.
I'm thinking of the history of Canadian National and of the remarks made by former president Gordon, who said that no francophones were qualified to act as vice-president. Doesn't contriving to exclude francophones from the board show a lack of sensitivity toward francophones?
5:40 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
I cannot speak to the comments of those who have come before me. What I would say now is that, as I look at the past, this company has had a history of francophone representation on our board, and Quebec-based francophone representation on the board. Sometimes it's multiple members. Sometimes it's one member. As I said, we are in a period right now that we regret, a very brief period, where we have no members and we will rectify that shortly. That—
5:45 p.m.
Bloc
Mario Beaulieu Bloc La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC
Pardon me, but we have very little time. I have two minutes left.
In an article recently published in La Presse about communications at CN, a bilingual employee was reported as saying that she was being surrounded by more unilingual anglophones with every passing day. She noted, "When you're a francophone, you have to speak English because otherwise you can't do your job; it's as simple as that." She added that there was a thin line and that, as far as she could see, no unilingual francophones were being hired.
Does CN hire unilingual francophones? We know that nearly half of Quebec's population only speaks French.
5:45 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
Yes indeed, and we are hiring unilingual francophones. We have almost 3,400 employees in Quebec. We have many employees in our operations department who operate in parts of the province that, as you suggest, speak only French, and we have many of these employees who speak only French. We have the processes and the protocols in place to make sure we can support that and can communicate in the language of those employees' choice—
5:45 p.m.
Bloc
Mario Beaulieu Bloc La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC
Pardon me for interrupting. I have very little time left to ask a final question.
Several examples of discrimination were cited in La Presse article, and the people interviewed spoke anonymously out of fear of reprisals.
You say there've been very few complaints. What do you think that means when people say they fear reprisals?