Francization: hundreds of companies are dragging their feet

Hundreds of businesses are not meeting their obligation to register with the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF).

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As of December 31, just over 10,000 companies with 50 employees or more were registered with the OQLF, approximately 10% more than a year earlier.

According to Statistics Canada, there are some 15,000 businesses of this size in Quebec. By removing public organizations and seasonal businesses, which are not covered by the Charter of the French Language, there remain between 11,000 and 12,000 businesses which are required to be registered with the OQLF.

There are therefore hundreds of companies present in Quebec which do not respect their obligations under Bill 101.

As soon as they reach the threshold of 50 employees, companies have six months to register with the OQLF. They have an interest in doing so as soon as possible, believes Véronique Décarie, francization specialist at Versacom.

“It’s completely civilized”

“There is no one who shows up at your house with a beat baseball to intimidate you, she illustrates. It’s completely civilized. Discussion is possible.”

Of the approximately 10,000 companies registered with the OQLF, approximately 2,500 do not yet have their francization certificate. It will take them a few years to get it. However, around 400 of them have been in the francization process for more than three years.

Companies hire lawyers to try to evade Bill 101, but chances of success are slim, says M^me Décarie.

• Listen to the interview Rachel Van Velzen, general manager of the Latin Quarter business development company, via QUB :

“There are clients who come to see us after having dealt with law firms for not complying,” she relates. They spent a fortune and it yielded absolutely nothing.”

Special agreements

However, it is possible for certain companies to obtain special agreements in order to bypass francization for certain activities. Among those that have entered into such agreements with the OQLF, we include Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP), Nuvei, Pfizer Canada, Wabtec and CMC Électronique.

“An eligible company may enter into a special agreement with the Office which allows it to use a language other than French as the operating language for the activities of its head office or its research center, for a determined number of positions and in very specific situations,” explains a spokesperson for the OQLF, Chantal Bouchard.

Around forty other companies have agreements that have expired, but which have not yet been renewed.

This is particularly the case for Bombardier, whose agreements have expired since December 2022. These are “in the process of renewal”, assured the Newspaper a spokesperson for the company, Marie-Andrée Charron.

– With Francis Halin