Hundreds of companies are not complying with their obligation To with the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF).
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As of Dec. 31, just over 10,000 companies with 50 or more employees were registered with the OQLF, up about 10% from a year earlier.
According to Statistics Canada, there are about 15,000 companies of this size in Quebec. The elimination of public organizations and seasonal businesses that are not covered by the French Language Charter leaves between 11,000 and 12,000 businesses that must be registered with the OQLF.
As a result, there are hundreds of companies in Quebec that are not meeting their obligations under Bill 101.
Once companies reach the 50 employee threshold, they have six months To with the OQLF. They have an interest in doing this as quickly as possible, believes Véronique Décarie, franchise specialist at Versacom.
“It’s completely civilized”
“There’s no one going to show up at your house with a baseball bat to intimidate you,” she explains. It's completely civilized. Discussion is possible.”
Véronique Décarie Photo provided by Versacom
Of the approximately 10,000 companies registered with the OQLF, approximately 2,500 do not yet have their franchising certificate. It will take a few years for them to get it. However, around 400 of them have already been in the francization process for more than three years.
Companies are hiring lawyers to escape Bill 101, but the chances of success are slim, according to Ms. Décarie.
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“There are clients who come to us after negotiating with law firms for non-compliance,” she says. They spent a fortune and it achieved absolutely nothing.”
Special agreements
However, it is possible for certain companies to conclude special agreements to avoid francization for certain activities. Companies that have entered into such agreements with the OQLF include Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP), Nuvei, Pfizer Canada, Wabtec and CMC Électronique.
“An eligible company may enter into a special agreement with the Office allowing it to use a language other than French as the operating language for the activities of its headquarters or research center for a certain number of posts and in very specific situations,” explains a spokesperson for the OQLF, Chantal Bouchard.
Archive photo, QMI Agency
Around forty other companies have contracts that have expired but have not yet been renewed.
This is particularly true for Bombardier, whose contracts expired in December 2022. These are “in the process of being renewed,” a company spokeswoman, Marie-Andrée Charron, assured the Journal.
– With Francis Halin