Official Languages Committee on June 2nd, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

Thank you, Mr. d'Entremont.

Mr. Beaulieu, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you.

Ms. Burke, in response to my earlier question about WestJet, you said the company should hire only bilingual employees everywhere. Do you think that's realistic, outside Quebec?

[Kelly Burke]

What I said was private companies should hire as many bilingual people as possible across the country. You're right. The reality on the ground is—

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

Isn't it discriminatory to require only bilingual staff in Quebec?

[Kelly Burke]

What I'm saying regarding the company's hiring practices, and what I support, is that, as much as possible, with its current and future staff, it should be able to provide service to both the anglophone and francophone communities across the country.

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

You're not answering my question. We can also provide service to both communities by having unilingual French staff if another employee can take over. I think it's a bit excessive to require knowledge of English for all employees in Quebec.

[Kelly Burke]

Is that the requirement of WestJet right now?

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

That's what we heard from WestJet.

[Kelly Burke]

That will be something to assess.

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

Okay. That's perfect.

Talking about Quebec, you said having two regimes in the same territory made things more complicated. Personally, I think having two competing regimes will lead to less efficiency, because, as you said, people won't know where to go to file a complaint, among other things.

Can you tell us more about how to make that clearer and more effective?

[Kelly Burke]

A lot of education would be needed. As I said at the outset, I believe the public, employers, consumers and employees will be lost in a brand new system. Over time, it may get better. However, it will definitely take a lot of education to operate with two legislative frameworks that explain obligations and duties differently.

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

That's right.

Do you think it would have ultimately been simpler to have just one plan?

[Kelly Burke]

I leave it to politicians and parliamentarians to decide what the best path forward will be for the time being.

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

Are you talking with the Office québécois de la langue française?

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

Mr. Beaulieu, your time is up.

Commissioner, I'll let you answer with one sentence, and then I'm going to interrupt you.

[Kelly Burke]

Not at the moment, Mr. Beaulieu, but we very much look forward to working with the Office on this new act, once it comes into force.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mr. Godin, you have the floor for five minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Commissioner, you said earlier that the terms “service” and “consumer” are ill-defined. You also mentioned something else that I unfortunately didn't take note of. Is it possible for you to repeat those three points?

[Kelly Burke]

Sure. The word “consumer” used in clause 7 of the act is not defined.

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

There was also the term “service”.

[Kelly Burke]

I had mentioned “service” and “communication“.

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

The third was “communication”.

[Kelly Burke]

For “service” and “communication”, we propose to use the act as a model—

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

That's fine. I just wanted to remember the three terms. Thank you. I'll take note of them and we'll probably make a recommendation on that. It was very relevant.

Let's talk about registries.

There's a lot of laxness in the act at the moment, I would say. We're talking about annual statement, annual compliance renewal and certification sent by the minister.

Would it be more effective, more rigorous, to have a registry? Also, what will happen when people don't comply and don't register? What are your thoughts on that?

[Kelly Burke]

In terms of compliance and consequences, we noted that it's not specified in the act. As far as the registry is concerned, I think it'll help us a great deal to have a very simple, up‑to‑date registry that meets the needs of any person and entity taking part in the exercise.