The Minister of the French Language, Jean-François Roberge, hopes that the status of bilingual cities will become one of the questions on the ballot during the next municipal elections.
“The next municipal electoral campaign will answer many questions,” said the CAQ minister on Tuesday in the parliamentary committee for the study of his ministry’s budgetary appropriations. He was responding to questions from Parti Québécois (PQ) MP Pascal Bérubé, who was surprised that the almost fifty Quebec municipalities inhabited by less than 50% of English speakers could maintain their bilingual status.
Since the adoption of Law 96 “on the official and common language of Quebec, French”, these towns and villages had the obligation to adopt a resolution if they wanted to remain bilingual in the eyes of the law and thus continue to use both French and English in their official communications. However, the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) confirmed last year that the 48 eligible municipalities had chosen to maintain their status.
“Except that none of the elected officials who made this decision have faced the electorate since,” remarked Jean-François Roberge on Tuesday. Adopted in 2022, Law 96 had in fact entered into force three years before the next municipal electoral deadline, scheduled for 2025. “I think they [les élus] will have to be held accountable,” Mr. Roberge said to his PQ counterpart. “It should be an issue in the next municipal election campaign. »
Words that encourage Mr. Bérubé. “If there is a debate on this, interesting,” he was content to say in committee.
Among the municipalities having adopted a resolution, the OQLF includes Otterburn Park. In this city located 40 kilometers east of Montreal, only 7.2% of residents are English-speaking. This is the lowest total observed for a bilingual municipality throughout Quebec.
Further details will follow.
To watch on video