‘Waste of time and money’: Quebec business owner slams new language rules

Swiss Vienna pastry shop in Pointe-Claire has been serving the community for over 60 years.

Harry Schick has owned the family business for over four decades and during that time, he says, he’s always served clients in both French and English.

The pastry shop has signs throughout in both languages and in the same size and, according to Schick, he doesn’t plan on changing that any time soon.

“To me, an anglophone customer and francophone customer deserve equal respect,” he said. “There’s no way that a francophone is three times more important than an anglophone. So in this store, the signs are remaining bilingual and equal in size.”

On Wednesday, the Quebec government announced that it will go ahead with its new regulations requiring all signs on commercial businesses, aside from the company name, to be predominantly in French.

That means that while English names like Home Depot and Canadian Tire won’t be banned, stores will have to add slogans or descriptions in French that take up twice as much space.

“In Quebec, when Quebecers and tourists walk through the streets, it must be clear that Quebec is a French-speaking nation,” the minister of the French language, Jean-Francois Roberge, said in a statement to Global News. “It’s a question of respect for North America’s only French-speaking nation. We must also ensure that companies respect consumers’ rights to be informed and served in French.”

Schick said the new regulations are “not going to improve the situation of the French language in Quebec.”

“It’s not going to help anybody learn the language by changing Magasin Canadian Tire. That’s why it’s just a waste of time and money.”

2:18 Quebec judge blocks parts of language law requiring English decisions be translated

Benjamin Rousse of the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses says the new rules mean more paperwork and extra costs for entrepreneurs.

“The smaller the business is, the bigger the impact will have on them. When you think of a business that maybe gets $50,000 of salary, if they need to change their public signage, that costs $4,000-5,000 that has a huge impact at the end of the year on their profit margins.”

The French language ministry estimates the required changes will cost Quebec businesses between $7 and $15 million.

Some businesses owners claim the cost will be much higher.

They have until June, 1 2025 to comply with the new regulations.