Mark Carney hit out at Air Canada for a "lack of judgment and compassion" after the airline's CEO expressed condolences to victims' families in a four-minute video spoken almost entirely in English.
Michael Rousseau's message contained just two words in French, Canada's second official language.
The Canadian prime minister said he was disappointed with the unilingual message, adding: “Companies like Air Canada particularly have a responsibility to always communicate in both official languages regardless of the situation."
Mr Carney says Ottawa is working with US officials to investigate the crash of an Air Canada jet at New York's LaGuardia Airport that killed two pilots Sunday night.