Digital platforms are one of the two greatest threats to the French fact, and “Law 96” does not offer the necessary tools in Quebec to combat this reality, according to the Minister of Finance, Eric Girard.
This was indicated by the elected member of the Coalition avenir Québec, also minister responsible for Relations with English-speaking Quebecers, at the end of a parliamentary committee session in Quebec City on Thursday.
“Digital is dominated by the large American multinational companies, and that happens in English. So it’s difficult to counter the influence of English in the digital world, ”he admitted in a press scrum, a few minutes after the study of the credits of the Secretariat for relations with English-speaking Quebecers.
Mr. Girard observes “two places where French is more vulnerable” in Quebec: digital and workplaces.
However, the government passed legislation last year to reduce the use of English and other third languages in the labor market. The Act respecting the official and common language of Quebec, French, notably extends the scope of the Charter of the French language to businesses with 25 to 49 employees. “There, I think we can make a difference,” said Mr. Girard Thursday afternoon.
In the digital world, things are changing. “It’s extremely difficult,” admitted the Minister of Finance. We are giving tools to the Ministry of Culture to promote digital in French, we are going to increase digital content in French. But that will not prevent the dominant presence, always, of English […]. »
Protecting the “Quebec specificity”
François Legault’s government has demanded since its re-election that the federal government protect, through its telecommunications powers, the “Quebec specificity” in the cultural content broadcast in Canada. In February, the National Assembly unanimously adopted a motion requiring Ottawa to include in its Bill C-11 on online content a mechanism to ensure better representation of Quebec creations everywhere. in Canada.
This motion did not have the desired effect. Justin Trudeau’s government dismissed him in the hours that followed; approved by the Senate on Thursday, the law will soon be sanctioned.
To avoid getting stuck in the water, the Quebec Minister of Culture and Communications, Mathieu Lacombe, had admitted in an interview to the Duty that he could legislate and tighten the screw on Netflix, Spotify and company. “All we want is to strengthen the protection of Quebec’s specificity,” he said at the end of February.
At the start of the year, the Minister for the French Language, Jean-François Roberge, launched the Action Group for the Future of the French Language, a kind of round table around which sit a handful of ministers from François Legault’s government. . Their objective is to submit an action plan aimed at reversing the decline of French. So far, however, there has been no talk of reopening Law 96.