Evidence of meeting #101 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was westjet.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director, Regulatory Affairs, WestJet Airlines Ltd.
I'll address this one.
We want those complaints to be lower and lower. The ultimate goal of the work that we are undertaking is to reduce that number. We would love it to be zero. That is probably not achievable, but we will keep pushing until it goes down.
February 15th, 2024 / 1:05 p.m.
Liberal
Director, Regulatory Affairs, WestJet Airlines Ltd.
Over the last several years, of course, we've had the COVID-19 pandemic and some disruption, but if we take those years aside, a consistently low number of issues relative to the number of guests we serve with disabilities is a very consistent trend. Again, it's a trend we want to see reduced over time.
Liberal
Joyce Murray Liberal Vancouver Quadra, BC
Could you tell us what percentage of WestJet's employees self-identify as persons with disabilities, please?
Chief Executive Officer, WestJet Airlines Ltd.
We'll have to report back.
It's a fair share. We are a very inclusive company, so there are quite a few, but I don't have the exact number.
Liberal
Joyce Murray Liberal Vancouver Quadra, BC
I'm also interested in how many are in mid- to high-level executive positions.
Here is another question you may be able to answer: Does WestJet have targets for how many persons with disabilities it will have in its employee group? Do you have a target percentage?
Chief Executive Officer, WestJet Airlines Ltd.
I would have to get back on that.
There are, obviously, very different types of employee groups that have certain limitations on what kind of disabilities can be accommodated. If you think of pilots, there are limits to the disabilities that would allow someone to be a pilot or a flight attendant. There are other groups where this is much easier. In those cases, we are very open and welcoming. We do employ quite a few.
I don't know the exact number, but I would be happy to report back.
Liberal
Joyce Murray Liberal Vancouver Quadra, BC
I'm asking this because part of the culture change that we have done in the Government of Canada is to have explicit goals for recruitment of persons with disabilities. For example, a goal is to go from 5.3% of the workforce in 2018 to 7% in 2025. That is part of the culture of the current government's approach to public service. That means that those people can help the organization serve people with disabilities much more effectively.
I'm also interested in what kinds of support you provide for your internal employees with disabilities in terms of services and equipment to make sure they can be effective, regardless of their disability.
Do you have an explicit program for that?
Chief Executive Officer, WestJet Airlines Ltd.
First of all, we are a very diverse company. In all diversity dimensions, we are scoring relatively high. I think we are doing a pretty good job in that sense.
I like your proposal. It is certainly something we should look at. I'm not sure to what extent we have explicit targets.
Vice-President, External Affairs, WestJet Airlines Ltd.
Yes, we're going to have to get back to you, Ms. Murray, on all of these counts, and we will endeavour to do so. I should add that in our discussions with the chief accessibility officer, this is a topic that she has raised with us and tabled with us. It's on our working list of items to tackle with her to get to the point you rightfully make about needing to have an employee group that represents the general population in order to understand things better.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you, Mr. Gibbons.
Thank you, Ms. Murray.
Yes, go ahead, Mr. Badawey.
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
On Ms. Murray's question, what I think the committee would be very interested in is those numbers.
Mr. Peterson, you mentioned the fact that they may have been one way versus the other, but if we could have those numbers provided to the committee, that would very helpful.
Vice-President, External Affairs, WestJet Airlines Ltd.
As to how many complaints there are?
Vice-President, External Affairs, WestJet Airlines Ltd.
Sure. We're happy to do that.
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
And I'll go a step further: not only complaints but also incidents. Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you very much, Mr. Badawey.
On behalf of all committee members, I want to express our gratitude once again to our three witnesses who have appeared before us today from WestJet. I wish you all a wonderful afternoon.
This meeting stands adjourned.