Eva Baldi
Shawville June 20, 2022
On Monday June 20 Pontiac MNA André Fortin hosted a meeting for the anglophone business owners about how the new Quebec language legislation will affect their businesses.
Bill 96 was voted into law on June 1 2022. The bill was proposed by the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) party who has the majority of seats in the Quebec provincial legislature, and to ensure that their new bill cannot be contested in the courts, as it was enacted using the notwithstanding clause. This means that the new laws will be in place for a period of five years, after the five years . . .
are up the government will have the choice to drop the laws, enact the notwithstanding clause again, or vote it into law without the protection of the Notwithstanding clause. The notwithstanding removes the ability for the law to be challenged in court.
During the meeting Fortin spent a significant amount of time explaining the way that Bill 96 affects people as individuals as opposed to businesses.
The new law means changes for Quebecers and the way that they receive government services. Though services surrounding health, public safety, radio, newspapers, and tourism offices continue to operate in either language, other government operated services now require documentation from the individual for service to be provided in English. Documentation being sent to government offices may be translated into English for the individual’s understanding, however they must be available in French. The translation will not be covered by the provincial government.
“I hate to say this, but it’s a bit of an anglo tax,” said Fortin during the meeting.
Fortin explained that under the new language laws people in Quebec are placed into three distinct classifications: historic Quebec anglophones, francophones (non-historic anglophones), and immigrants. Similarly to the way that historic anglophones in Quebec must prove that they were schooled in English for their children to be eligible for English schooling, historic anglophones must now use this documentation when requesting government services in English. This option is no longer available to people who do not fall under the “historic anglophone” category, and immigrants to the province may only request English services for a period of six months.
As for businesses, first and foremost, the bill is ensuring that service and jobs are available to the unilingual francophone anywhere in Quebec. When advertising a job businesses are now required to post the advertisement in both French and English. Fortin used the example of a newspaper, he said that if you were to post a classified looking for help within your workplace in an English newspaper, you are now required to publish an advertisement in the French newspaper as well.
Fortin suggested that this is done to ensure that unilingual francophones are awarded the same opportunity for jobs as anglophones and those who are bilingual. This was met with frustration from the business owners, who have had significant trouble hiring people who speak French at all. Fortin explained that under the new laws employers need to make an effort to create job opportunities that do not require the use of English.
However, according to a business owner the need for bilingualism when hiring is something that can be argued. Not every job will have the exact same requirements for an employee.
Using the example of a gas station attendant pumping gas, this employee would have a different set of responsibilities, and as they would be working alone would need the use of both languages in order to successfully communicate with customers, however a hardware store employee working with several coworkers would not need bilingualism as hypothetically someone else would be able to step-in if they were unable to speak to a customer in English.
Entrepreneurs looking to start a new business are now required to hire someone who speaks French if they do not speak French themselves. This is because under Bill 96 the ability to provide service in French is required. Furthermore, Fortin explains that the only support given to these business owners in order to communicate with their francophone employees are free French lessons, which the CAQ government and the Office Quebecois de la Langue Française (OQLF) have not clarified where these will be made available.
Fortin also explained that businesses with 25 or more employees will now be subject to search and seizure privileges for internal communications. This is to ensure that communications within a company are being carried out in French. Fortin explained that what they truly have access to is not entirely clear. Along with this, the OQLF has been granted 100 million dollars in additional funding.
The start dates for the new laws will be different depending on the section of the Bill. By the end of the meeting, business owners were thanking Fortin for his time explaining for this convoluted piece of legislation would affect businesses within the region.
