Key takeaways:
- Larger companies have six months to complete the process.
- Bill 96 aims to strengthen the French language in Quebec by advancing its use in stores and workplaces.
The Quebec government is providing firms in federally regulated sectors one month to comply with new provisions to ensure the use of French in their workplaces.
The action comes as Ottawa’s goals to modernize the nation’s Official Languages Act, which will have new laws for federally regulated firms, are still being discussed in Parliament.
Federally regulated sectors have banking, telecommunications, and transportation, which were not under the lawful purview of the Quebec government till the recent adoption of a new language regulation known as Bill 96.
According to political scientist Stéphanie Chouinard, an ace in language problems, the Quebec government is taking action. At the same time, Ottawa persists in facing criticism for its much-delayed plans to contemporize federal language rules.
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“Quebec is now benefiting from a vacuum, which is to state that as long as the federal government has not given the new directives that are asked for under C-13 about the language requirements of firms under federal jurisdiction, Quebec can take action,” said Chouinard, who trains at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario.
New regional laws
According to data obtained by Radio-Canada, the local Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) sent almost 800 firms last Friday informing them to start creating a formal plan to let workers work in French.
The OQLF has requested all firms under federal jurisdiction to supply the name of a contact person and their number of workers within 30 days.
Firms with 25 to 49 workers have three years to finish the process, while those with 50 or more workers are given six months. Smaller firms will not have to create a plan.
Source – CBC News
