Stricter language laws coming for Quebec businesses. Not everyone is happy

Some Quebec businesses will soon have to change their signs to display two times more French than English.

The province has drafted its latest batch of regulations, clarifying parts of its controversial language law known as Bill 96. While the bill was adopted into law in 2022, some parts have yet to be implemented.

The province’s latest draft regulation concerns the section of the law on signage and product labelling, which is set to come into effect in June 2025.

Starting then, businesses will have to change their outdoor signs and will have to make sure all individual product labels include French descriptions. They will be given a two-year grace period to sell off non-compliant products manufactured before that deadline.

“Most stores, restaurants or other businesses already respect the law and the new regulations,” Jean-François Roberge, Quebec’s minister of the French language, told Global News in an interview. “Most of them will have simply nothing to do — even if they have an English name.”

Roberge says businesses with names that aren’t in French will not have to change their official name or trademark.

Rather than having to change their signage entirely, Roberge suggests tacking on additional descriptions and slogans in French.

The additional signs would have to be permanent and easy to read, but can be displayed in the businesses’ storefront windows, as well as on their main sign. Roberge says complaints to the OQLF regarding signage have gone up 155 per cent over the past five years and insists these new regulations are necessary.

“French is the only official language here in Quebec so it’s normal that most of the information when you walk in a city, most of the information is in French,” Roberge said.

For its part, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) still has concerns.

It says it isn’t against the measures put in place by Bill 96, but it wants the province to be more lenient when it comes to small businesses with fewer than 25 employees.

“The fact that those measures are going to come into play is again going to add some more red tape, some more paperwork and burden on small businesses,” said Benjamin Rousse, a policy analyst with the CFIB. “(Owners) work right now, on average, 60 hours per week. The last thing that they need is to work even more hours on paperwork and on red tape.”

The province says it’s impossible to say just how many businesses will have to change their signage.

It says the cost of implementing all the new measures will vary and the businesses themselves will have to foot the bill.

The minister says businesses that do not comply by June 2025 will receive a written warning, and eventually risk receiving hefty fines.