Official Languages Committee on Feb. 3rd, 2026

[Marc Barbeau]

We've had these obligations internally for 50 years. I can't tell you that establishing regulations will make a difference, because in itself, it simply reflects the obligations that already exist.

What we're seeing is that, as Mr. Rheault said, it's asymmetrical. It simply regulates something—

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

You decided that instead of saying “unfair competition”, you would say “asymmetrical”.

[David Rheault]

The concept of unfair competition refers to the practices of another company, whereas here, it comes from the government.

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

I understand.

[David Rheault]

However, it could be said that this is unfair, both for carriers and passengers, incidentally.

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

Absolutely.

[David Rheault]

First and foremost, it's unfair to passengers.

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

The purpose of this law is to serve bilingualism in Canada.

Would you be comfortable if we recommended in this report that penalties be introduced for government bodies that would work in much the same way as penalties in the environmental field?

[David Rheault]

I'm not familiar with what's done in the environmental field, but we agree that there should be sanctions against government institutions. In fact, the Charter of the French Language provides that government institutions be subject to sanctions. In Quebec, I believe that municipalities, which are government institutions, have paid penalties.

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

Yes, absolutely.

Part II provides that businesses operating in Quebec, such as Air Canada, which has its headquarters in Montreal, have the option of coming under the jurisdiction of the Office québécois de la langue française.

[David Rheault]

That's not the case for Air Canada, because our company is clearly subject to the Official Languages Act. We have no choice.

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

Okay. Maybe that's where the asymmetry comes from.

[Marc Barbeau]

That's why we're proud to be subject to the Official Languages Act and to be voluntarily registered with the Office québécois de la langue française.

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

We, the Bloc Québécois and the Conservatives, fought a battle here that we lost at the last minute. We were stabbed in the back to force federally regulated companies to use the French language in Quebec, but that's another story.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

Thank you very much, Mr. Godin.

Mr. Deschênes‑Thériault, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Rheault and Mr. Barbeau, for being here today.

I think the purpose of this meeting is precisely to hear from various stakeholders who will be affected by the implementation of the regulations. It also helps us do our job better when it comes time to make recommendations, to better understand how those affected are reacting to the regulations and how it will affect their activities or their ways of doing things.

In your remarks, you mentioned that you will do everything you can to avoid paying penalties and that you've already put in place various compliance measures with a view to continuous improvement.

The primary purpose of imposing a penalty is not to punish, but rather to promote compliance with the Official Languages Act.

Would you agree that the mere existence of an administrative penalty regime encourages greater compliance?

[David Rheault]

I disagree, because the modernized act removed the due diligence defence, a legal standard for recognizing litigants' efforts to comply. This is quite exceptional.

In criminal law, there is a principle that if a company or a litigant, who is not necessarily a company, makes every reasonable effort to avoid breaking the law, a penalty will not apply, because the reasonableness of the effort has been demonstrated.

This defence has been removed from the act, which is quite exceptional because, on the one hand, the number of institutions subject to this section is limited as much as possible, and, on the other, their defence is also limited, whereas all other companies and institutions have no obligations or penalties.

[Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

I want to take a brief look back. The modernized Official Languages Act received royal assent in June 2023. Let's look at the context at the time of the 2022 report by the Commissioner of Official Languages. I recognize that there have been improvements since then, but a year before the modernized act was passed, we read that Air Canada was one of the main sources of traveller complaints and that there had been no significant improvement since Commissioner Fraser's 2016 special report.

In 2023, in the report published in the same year as the act was modernized, we read that the number of complaints against Air Canada had reached a 10-year high. The public expected improvements because they wanted to see their rights respected at all times.

I would like to hear your comments on this, because you yourself mentioned that there have been improvements over the past two years and you've put various compliance measures in place. Could the fact that there is a system of monetary penalties have had an impact on recent improvements when it comes to compliance with language obligations?

[David Rheault]

I can tell you that, since 2018-19, the commissioner has been sending us an average of nearly 100 complaints a year. Some years, like 2023-24, we received more.

That year, a change in the reservation system caused a problem with the language selected for communications between travel agencies and the system. Many customers didn't receive their notifications in their chosen language. In fact, a number of MPs reported this problem to me. We made those changes. Technical issues do happen. We correct them, but that can increase the number of complaints. So we didn't wait for monetary penalties to correct that. It's not related to monetary penalties. For us, it's a matter of principle and priority.

I will now report what the commissioner said publicly at one of our recent meetings:

I applaud Air Canada's commitment to continuing the conversation with us on its official languages initiatives, which shows the airline's willingness to co-operate and work toward full compliance with the act.

That's what the commissioner said, and it reflects our goodwill.

[Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

The goal is not to impose regulations so that you receive penalties. The goal is to foster compliance with the regulations almost all the time and, in an ideal world, not impose penalties.

[David Rheault]

The purpose of the regulations is to impose penalties.

[Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

I have one last question for you in the time I have left. As an Acadian member from northern New Brunswick, I would be remiss if I didn't ask you.

This past October, the Société de l'Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick or SANB filed a complaint with the commissioner's office alleging that Air Canada violated its obligations under the Official Languages Act in evaluating its decisions on the vitality of francophone communities. The complaint referred to the abandonment of air service at Bathurst Regional Airport, which has repercussions on Acadian communities in northern New Brunswick.

I would briefly like to hear your comments on how you received this complaint. What's your opinion on the complaint filed by the SANB?

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

You have 20 seconds left.

[David Rheault]

It was a very tough decision for Air Canada. It had been a difficult route for us for a number of years. We talked to the airport and the communities well in advance. In addition, we met the notification requirement under the Transportation Act, so the community was able to look for another carrier to resume service the day after our shutdown. Both the Government of New Brunswick and the federal government supported this new carrier being chosen.

We therefore met our obligations to give another carrier operating smaller aircraft more suited to the realities of a smaller market the opportunity to take over that market with a higher frequency. We couldn't offer that to the people of Bathurst.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

The time is up.

I'd like to thank you for being here, Mr. Rheault and Mr. Barbeau.

That would suggest to me that you work hard to comply with the act, so we can expect no more complaints or penalties. Thank you again for being with us today.

Colleagues, we have just a few minutes of work to do together on the report of the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure. I will therefore suspend the meeting for a minute.