Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First, I'd like to say that as stated when the motion was initially moved, it would have been a good idea to invite CEO Rousseau before the committee. It's a matter of accountability. He was the CEO, the chief executive of Air Canada when the incidents occurred, and that reflected a pattern. It was not the first incident within the past five years.
It would have been worthwhile to have Mr. Rousseau appear before the committee to have a better understanding of the internal systems, or rather, the lack of certain procedures that may result in non-compliance of one of our official languages, and to ask him questions about some of the decisions that have been taken during his tenure. The goal is not to focus our remarks on the past, but to gain a better understanding of the systems or issues that make these things happen and to plan for the future.
I'm also thinking about decisions that have been rescinded or abandoned, particularly with regard to services for Acadian communities in northern New Brunswick. I didn't get a satisfactory answer from Air Canada employees when they appeared before the committee, and I would have liked to put these questions directly to the CEO who was in charge at the time.
That said, I think the amendment moved by my colleague Louis Villeneuve is a valuable contribution. This matter allows us to focus on the future, and as such, I will support the motion, in spite of the aspects I have just mentioned.
I think we're being proactive, particularly with respect to the invitation to the chair of the board of directors. We will ask them questions at the front end. We can ask them what they think the language requirements should be, whether the next CEO should be proficient in French and whether this will be one of the hiring criteria. We're taking a proactive approach. We'll ask the board of directors' representative these questions directly. We're also turning to the future to understand future priorities.
I will therefore support the amendment proposed by my colleague Mr. Villeneuve to the motion moved by Mr. Godin, but I still wanted to say that I would have liked to have the current CEO appear before the committee.