Official Languages Committee on May 28th, 2026

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

That's good.

Mr. Martineau flew with WestJet, and the flight attendant told him that English was the only official language in Canada. In any case, I was reading the article about it.

I wanted to know something else. Outside Quebec, do you have unilingual anglophone employees?

[Lyne Chayer]

Yes. We still have unilingual anglophone employees at headquarters in Calgary, among other places.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

You said that you didn't have any unilingual francophone employees in Quebec. Isn't that discrimination?

[Lyne Chayer]

No. In Quebec, we automatically hire bilingual people because we obviously have to provide inflight service in both languages. Of course, flight attendants based at our hubs may be assigned to domestic flights, but we always want to provide service in both languages.

As for Sunwing Vacations, that was part of the acquisition. We have an office in Laval with 200 employees. Again, we hire bilingual staff. If customers want to contact the call centre, if they want to do a group booking, speak with customer service, whatever, we have to provide services in both languages.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

However, if there are unilingual anglophone employees, why wouldn't there be unilingual francophone employees as well? It can be done. If one employee can't provide the service, another can. It seems a bit uneven. You're asking that all the Quebec employees be bilingual, but you should require that of all employees, period. That's my opinion.

[Tristan Joanette]

I'll answer that, if I may.

That is something the francization committee will take a very serious look at. We're aware that before we implement measures requiring English in Quebec, we need to make sure that the requirement is really necessary for the hiring process. There are a number of measures under the Charter of the French Language that need to be examined before we can impose a requirement other than French. Those are measures that we'll put in place, and we'll be sure to comply with them.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Are you subject to the Charter of the French Language?

[Tristan Joanette]

We have the obligation.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

I'm not talking about the Use of French in Federally Regulated Private Businesses Act.

[Tristan Joanette]

No, I know. You're talking about the Charter of the French Language. We'll be registering soon. A company that hires a certain number of employees over a six-month period is required to register six months after the end of that period. We therefore have six months to register. In short, it takes a year, which expires at the end of the month. We'll therefore be registering very soon with the Office québécois de la langue française.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

That's good. I commend you.

In any case, even with the French in federally regulated private businesses act, there is supposed to be widespread use of French for Quebec or, potentially, for regions with a high proportion of French speakers.

[Lyne Chayer]

Allow me to add that Sunwing Vacations was already certified by the Office québécois de la langue française. We had already done that. We're now preparing to do the same for WestJet.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

That's great.

I was wondering whether people on your board of directors speak French. Does the chair of your board speak French?

[Tristan Joanette]

We have two people on the board of directors who can speak French. Our chair and our chief executive officer both speak French.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

You're doing better than Air Canada.

[Tristan Joanette]

They're from Europe, so they're very familiar with multilingualism and the importance of languages.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

That's good.

If you're already subject to the Charter of the French Language, you don't need to be subject to the federal law, except outside Quebec, is that right?

[Tristan Joanette]

For Quebec, the regime is optional. We can choose one regime or the other. Outside Quebec, the federal regulations apply.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Have you compared the two systems? What's your impression of each one?

[Tristan Joanette]

I'll answer very quickly. They're not identical, but they're very similar.

I believe the people from the department came to talk to you about their meetings with the Office québécois de la langue française, the OQLF, to ensure that the two regimes are as similar as possible.

The question for us is this: Will we work with two regulatory authorities, the commissioner federally and the OQLF provincially, or will we switch completely to the federal system to deal with a single regulatory authority? There's not really a significant difference between the two regimes.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

You haven't decided yet. Is that correct?

[Tristan Joanette]

Essentially, we will likely follow the federal recommendation for practical reasons. If we are already subject to the regime that applies outside Quebec, it will be easier for us to coordinate with the federal government. However, ultimately, the obligations are the same for Quebec.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

Mr. Beaulieu, your speaking time has expired. Thank you very much.

We will now move on to the next round of questions.

I give the floor to Mr. Dalton for five minutes.

[Marc Dalton, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

Thank you.

I would like to thank the witnesses.

Ms. Chayer, your company's presentation was very positive. That's nice, but I haven't heard any complaints. Normally, when business representatives come to meet with us, they have suggestions to make.

Are you completely satisfied with the draft regulations, and are you giving us carte blanche? If you have any suggestions, now is the time to make them, because we will be making recommendations after our study is complete.

Do you have any recommendations to make, or are you applauding what we've done?

[Lyne Chayer]

We have made some recommendations.