Quebec’s new language law has some in the province’s business community considering opening offices outside of Quebec.
Under the new law, businesses are required to justify to the provincial government why hiring a non-French speaking employee is necessary. Additionally, new immigrants working in tech and other industries must participate in a six-month, publicly-funded language program. Those who fail to achieve the required level of workplace fluency can face thousands of dollars in fines.
The situation has some tech companies, already in a desperate search for scarce talent, making plans to move to other provinces, said Benjamin Bergen, president of the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI).
“A lot of companies have reached out to me saying, ‘Hey, is Ontario offering anything if we relocate across the river?’; ‘Is there stuff in Nova Scotia that we should be looking into?’” said Bergen.
“You’ll just quietly see jobs and offices ultimately leave the province. They’re already leaving.”
More than 170 businesses signed an open letter warning of the permanent economic damage Bill 96 could wreak. The bill, which passed into Law 14 earlier this year, increases the scope of Quebec’s Charter of the French Language.
Signatories include tech companies such as Diff, an eCommerce agency that has partnered with Shopify Plus, and Nuvei Technologies, a fintech company that recently attracted actor Ryan Reynolds as an investor.
Global talent
The new requirements put additional pressure on tech companies at a time when highly skilled workers are in short supply. Businesses already must compete to attract these employees from the global job market.
“Learning French is important for newcomers and making sure that they integrate into Quebec culture. But the speed and rate that requisition is happening is having a chilling effect on the business community,” Bergen said, referring to the new requirements the Quebec government is now enforcing.
A member of Quebec’s business community said the new law is making it more difficult for their large-scale business to attract talent. Canadian Affairs agreed to not name the person because they are not authorized to speak for the company.
“If we had an option to locate in Cornwall, Ontario, or Vaudreuil, Quebec, there’s no question that we would choose Cornwall,” said the person, discussing the effect Law 14 would have on the company if it had to make a decision about where to locate today.
“For me the major impact is this: it’s already difficult to hire today — finding talent is already difficult — this makes it that much harder,” the person said.
They are also concerned current non-French speaking employees will not achieve fluency with the half-year language course.
Compliance costs
François Vincent, vice-president of the Quebec arm of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), said association members have not said they plan to leave because of the language law.
But Vincent said the amount of paperwork and frequency of the Francization process places an unnecessary amount of red tape on small business owners. Francization is the practice of modifying foreign words, names and phrases to make them French.
Under the new law, small business owners with 25 to 49 employees are required to file for Francization every three years. The CFIB estimates that compliance with the Francization process could collectively impose on the province’s approximately 20,000 small businesses between $9.5 million and $23.5 million in costs.
“It won’t change the situation of French in a lot of businesses. It will increase the paper burden,” said Vincent.
Warrantless raids
Since 1977, the Office Québécois de la langue française (OQLF), Quebec’s French language enforcement office, has protected the rights of Quebecois workers to carry out activities in French.
Law 14 expands the office’s powers, including the power to conduct “search and seizure” raids on Quebec businesses without a warrant. To grant this extraordinary power, the province invoked the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which allows a law to temporarily override certain rights.
Law 14 does not prevent a staff member from using a language other than French with workers outside Quebec. But it does stipulate that business owners must respect their Quebec employees’ right to work in French.
“The Charter [of the French Language] does not contain any provisions specifically governing conversations between members of a company’s staff, insofar as this does not infringe on the right to work in French,” the OQLF shared in a statement.
Bergen is hopeful the fallout to Law 14 — businesses leaving Quebec — will lead the government to rethink the law.
“As this continues to march forward and you see data begin to emerge about what its actual impact is, that […] may create an opening for a more fulsome discussion about how best to make sure that Quebec culture and language is being protected, but that it’s also fostering economic prosperity for the province as well,” said Bergen.
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