Air carrier Air Canada announced on Monday that it is voluntarily registering with the Quebec Office of the French Language (OQLF), several months after the deadline set for it by Quebec Law 96.
“The additional action that the Company is taking today reflects its desire to contribute to the protection, promotion and influence of the French language, in compliance with the Official Languages Act which applies to the carrier”, can -we read in the press release issued by the company.
The announcement comes less than a week after an identical decision by Canadian National (CN), another major company under federal jurisdiction whose head office is also located in Montreal.
The two former federal Crown corporations were slow to comply with the Quebec Charter of the French language. In February, only 12 companies under federal jurisdiction still had to report to the OQLF, according to the organization’s calculations. Some 358 employers had already complied voluntarily with the Quebec law.
Under the Act respecting the official and common language of Quebec, French (better known by its nickname “Law 96”), passed last year, federally chartered businesses employing 50 or more people had until 1er last December to register with the Office.
A little late
Both Air Canada and CN negotiated for several months with the Office québécois de la langue française before reaching an agreement, the companies admitted. “The exchanges with the OQLF over the last few months were therefore aimed at finding a way to reconcile the obligations resulting from [la Loi sur les langues officielles du Canada] with CN’s desire to voluntarily register with the OQLF,” the rail carrier explained last week.
In November 2021, the big boss of Air Canada had aroused controversy by claiming to have “always been able to live in Montreal without speaking French”, remarks which he himself considered “insensitive”. He then appeared before a federal parliamentary committee to present his company as a champion of the French fact.
The Quebec Minister for the French Language, Jean-François Roberge, was delighted Monday to see the air carrier, which had already said it was reluctant to comply with the provisions of Quebec law, meet its legal obligations. “I salute this gesture made by an important company with its head office in Montreal,” he wrote. on Twitter.
Soon possible to give it up?
However, a federal government bill provides for allowing companies under its jurisdiction to waive their obligations under the Quebec Charter of the French language. As drafted, Liberal Bill C-13, which is to modernize Canada’s Official Languages Act, offers these companies the choice between Quebec bonds and Ottawa bonds.
The three federal opposition parties — the Bloc Québécois, the Conservative Party of Canada and the New Democratic Party — for their part promised to amend C-13 in order to force the application of the Quebec law to businesses under federal jurisdiction over the territory of the province. This must be attempted this spring, at the parliamentary committee stage, where the Liberal Party of Canada is in the minority.
This provision, however, applies only to federally chartered companies — banks, airlines, rail carriers and telecommunications companies, for example. The obligation to register with the OQLF was already incumbent on all other large companies under Bill 101.