Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
You should meet the Commissioner of Official Languages one day to learn the extent of the complaints filed against Air Canada. I'm troubled to learn that you aren't aware of Mr. Thibodeau's complaint, and I wonder if you're aware of the other complaints.
You said in your introduction that the situation was improving and that there were fewer and fewer complaints, but you still have to know about the ones there are. You know as well as I do that, for a person who complains, there are perhaps 10 more who don't. That results in stress and a process.
It's unacceptable to come here boasting in this matter. It's worth the trouble to read the report of the Commissioner of Official Languages because there is a section devoted to Air Canada; there's one in every report. As Mr. Galipeau said, it would be nice if we no longer saw you there, but you are at the top of the list; you're offender number one. Active offer by an employee is when he says: “Hello, bonjour.” I know that's complicated and it takes a Ph.D. thesis, but everyone should pass the thesis and say the word.
At Robert L. Stanfield International Airport in Halifax, it's 0%, none from Air Canada. And I'm not talking about the other offender, CATSA; I'm talking about Air Canada. In Montreal, it's 46%. I won't say everything I think about Canada when these kinds of things occur, but I will say that it's 4.7% in Ottawa, which is the federal capital of Canada; 4% in Toronto and a big 0% in Vancouver. That's here at home. Don't come and tell me things are going well and that there are fewer complaints. There should have been a complaint every time. People are so used to hearing the same old unacceptable things from Air Canada.
In 2007 and 2009, which is recent, only 41% of employees in bilingual positions met the language requirements of their positions. You see the extent of the situation. You give them a bilingual position, and only 41% meet the job criteria. Only 39% of Air Canada's francophone employees said they were satisfied with the opportunity to work in their language in the National Capital Region, in New Brunswick and in the designated bilingual regions of Ontario. That's in the report of the Commissioner of Official Languages. You should read a little bit of it every evening before you go to bed, if only to remind yourself that there are things that have to be improved.
I have a letter here dated October 26, 2006. That too is recent in the history of humanity. It talks about a situation that occurred on October 9, 2009 on board Air Canada flight 189 that left Ottawa at 5:30 p.m. and landed in Vancouver at 7:45 p.m., local time. A passenger asked the flight attendant for earphones to watch a movie. She answered him: “I don't speak French,” and went away without even offering to go find a co-worker who spoke French. That leads me to say that there were probably no flight attendants on board who spoke French. This is particularly unusual since, on a route, you can read that the service is to be provided in French. I was the complainant, and I'm going to give you a copy of the letter.
It's these kinds of situations that lead me to say that you've come here to put on a masquerade today, instead of presenting us with an action plan to improve the situation. I didn't have to dig for long to find those figures. You should have them on your desk every year and know where improvements have to be made. It's your job.
It's insidious that parliamentarians should be told to stop complaining because your company has improved. In a classroom, you'd be given detention every evening and you'd hear me repeat to you that you have homework and you have to do your work. This is the school teacher talking to you.