(Ottawa) La Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada (CN) doit donner l’exemple en s’assurant que les francophones soient représentés sur son conseil d’administration, a répété à plusieurs reprises le ministre des Transports, Omar Alghabra, lundi. Bien qu’il n’ait pas fermé la porte à ce qu’un quota soit imposé par l’entremise de la loi, le gouvernement semble peu enclin à aller dans cette direction.
Publié à 19h07
Mis à jour à 20h10
« Est-ce que vous seriez à l’aise de proposer vous comme ministre des Transports […] an obligation in the law to force the boards of directors to put Francophone representation as a percentage”, asked the Conservative MP, Joël Godin, in the parliamentary committee.
“CN and Air Canada are private companies,” said the Minister. That being said, I am very interested in protecting the rights of customers and employees who can choose the language of their choice. »
He then added that he did not want to presume the amendments that will be suggested during the committee study of Bill C-13 to modernize the Official Languages Act.
CN, which is subject to this legislation, made headlines in April after The Press revealed that the largest railway company in the country had closed the doors of its board of directors to Francophones, even though its head office is in Montreal.
“We spoke with CN and said we expect them to correct this error as soon as possible,” Alghabra said.
Employees also denounced several linguistic incidents that occurred at the Taschereau marshalling yard with the arrival of unilingual Anglophone employees.
“We must act now since we know that it also affects the question of security, argued the NDP MP, Niki Ashton. What are you waiting for to act? Are we going to wait for an accident to occur that is linked to the misunderstanding of the instructions between the members of a team? »
“Quebecers must be able to work in French in Quebec,” said the minister, in French, at the start of his testimony. Several deputies have also congratulated him for having improved his command of the language.
A little later, he agreed that employees should be able to work in the official language of their choice. “It would be unacceptable for CN not to fulfill this obligation even before the passage of Bill C-13,” he replied.
This bill gives five new powers to the Commissioner of Official Languages to enforce the Official Languages Act : informal mediation, the publication of its decisions, the imposition of fines, the conclusion of a compliance agreement and the power of order.
CN was the subject of five complaints in 2019 and 2020 relating to language of work, the minister revealed. A lower number than the complaints against Air Canada, which accumulates about 80 good year, bad year, since the railway company does not transport passengers.
“We see that it does not work,” argued Mario Beaulieu. He believes that CN employees in Quebec should use a single common language: French. “Why not let Quebec apply Bill 101 to companies under federal jurisdiction? »
“We must also respect the rights of individuals who do not speak French so that they can do their job safely,” said Mr. Alghabra. We want to protect the rights of both languages. »
Control of CN’s railway management was transferred to Alberta in early 2020. The move quickly sparked several “irregularities” in the east of the country, according to the Teamsters union, which represents locomotive engineers, chiefs of train and yardmasters.