As a Canadian Crown corporation, VIA Rail proudly serves the public in both official languages. But being truly bilingual also means working in both languages internally, and providing a space in which employees feel free to communicate in the language of their choice. It is a responsibility that we take seriously, within our corporation and without. Every passenger, employee, partner or supplier we communicate with, we offer to do so in either English or French.
Every year, Canadian Crown corporations submit their Annual Review of Official Languages to the Commissioner of Official Languages, Graham Fraser, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and to Heritage Canada. This year, we received some favourable feedback from the Government for our work. Though we are not usually ones to “toot our own horn”, I am making a special exception this year, to express my sincere gratitude to all employees who make the effort to support VIA Rail’s bilingual environment every day, on and off the train.
The Commissioner of Official Languages, Graham Fraser has these nice words to say about VIA Rail:
“[Translation] VIA Rail, a transportation company whose headquarters […] are in Montréal, manages, year after year, to achieve exemplary performance. In its newsletter, VIA Rail [...] is known for the tradition and culture of their organization (with respect to the importance of linguistic duality): we see a leadership that produces results.”
and
“Several federal institutions were still struggling with designing measures to promote both official languages across the country [...]. Institutions need to be proactive and direct their promotional efforts toward the general public to raise awareness about the importance of linguistic duality in Canadian society as a whole. Some institutions did implement measures of a broader scope, such as [...] VIA Rail Canada’s On Board Entertainment initiative.”
Only two institutions’ activities received the grade of “exemplary”, and VIA Rail was one of them.
Federal Crown corporations are expected to promote both official languages. The fact that we do it well is because we believe in its importance, and in the benefits of living in a country where diversity is respected, promoted and celebrated. Congratulations to all VIA Rail employees, for this well-earned recognition.
