New measures on commercial display | Concerns in the Quebec business community

Representatives of the Quebec business community denounce the measures put in place by the government to protect French.

In an open letter sent to a Montreal daily, economic organizations – the Canadian Retail Council (CCCD), the Conseil du Patronat du Québec (CPQ), the Quebec Hardware and Construction Materials Association, Quebec Manufacturers and Exporters, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) and the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of Quebec – have asked the Legault government to review its position in this matter.

According to them, the measures on commercial signage in French would force businesses to make adjustments that are often difficult to put in place, within two weeks. Unachievable in such a short period of time, maintains Michel Rochette, president of the Quebec section of the CCCD and spokesperson for the letter group.

The authors of the letter recall that the “government had promised a period of three years for the implementation of rules which, to date, have still not been adopted”.

If Bill 96 was finally sanctioned in 2022, some of the measures concerning businesses, the “rules of the game” as Mr. Rochette calls them, were only tabled in January of this year. Their final version has not yet been adopted. His observation is therefore simple: “we cannot make any change until we have the rules”.

The deadline to comply with the new regulations desired by Quebec is 1^er June. On this date, any mention of an “on/off” on a button would be prohibited under the provisions of Law 96, as would “play” on any player and many other mentions which were not yet subject to the French rule, because they did not relate to the safe use of a product. The logistical issue linked to the adaptation period poses a real concern for the co-signatories of Saturday’s open letter.

But the problem is larger. According to Mr. Rochette, outdoor advertising will also turn into a logistical nightmare. “Quebec businesses had already just completed a complete transformation, which ended barely five years ago, of all the exterior displays of businesses,” thunders Mr. Rochette. There, the regulations teach us that we must go through a new phase of change. Therefore, all signs that have been modified will have to be modified again, within an even shorter period of time. »

The president of the CCCD argues that display is also subject to constraints determined by municipalities and also building owners. “Some cases may be complex, if not impossible,” he notes.

Who’s afraid of the big bad web?

The signatories of the open letter have great fear of a very innocuous gesture: the click. If consumers can no longer find the product they are interested in at a local retailer, the temptation is great to turn to online commerce and purchase what they need on non-Quebec sites. These sites will not have to respect the rules for posting in French.

“We calculate that Quebecers will also unfortunately pay the price,” laments Mr. Rochette. And the French language risks being affected, because if we bring Quebecers to sites outside Quebec which do not respect the same rules, French will certainly not be better protected. »

Supply capacity constitutes one of the cruxes of this problem, insist the signatories of the letter. Because, if a product cannot comply with the rules established by the province, merchants will have no other choice but to withdraw it from sale.

However, “in an increasingly internationalized, increasingly broad world, where supply chains are very interconnected with the entire planet and suppliers are almost everywhere in the world,” points out Mr. Rochette. Sometimes, it becomes a little more complicated to impose constraints without delay. »

The industrial and economic realities of businesses, restaurants, etc., are what they are, recalls the president of the CCCD. A large number of products risk being withdrawn from sale, which will limit the supply at local merchants. “Why do we have to limit when it’s just for a button? », exclaims Michel Rochette.

Shared fears

Quebec saw this as an opportunity to develop partnerships with other suppliers, French-speaking or, quite simply, open to adapting to the Quebec market.

“Quebec is an advanced society and an important and lucrative market. If certain companies do not want to do business in Quebec to avoid translating the indications on their products, if they refuse to speak to Quebecers in French, we are convinced that their competitors will take advantage of these opportunities for the benefit of Quebecers,” argued the Minister of the French Language, Jean-François Roberge in a press release at the end of February.

The CCCD and its allies, however, are not as optimistic as the minister. And Washington’s reaction to the future regulation of commercial signage in Quebec tends to prove the commercial and entrepreneurial organizations right. The Office of the American Trade Representative had reported that many concerns were emerging south of the border, mainly among small and medium-sized businesses, for whom adaptation to the more demanding standards of French-speaking Quebecers poses, for them too, a problem of adaptability and, therefore, possible customer losses.

“For the past year and a half, we have been contacted almost every day with questions, especially from smaller and medium-sized businesses. […] We face a lot of incomprehension, honestly, and surprise, in relation to the criteria which seem ultra-demanding to them,” confided Eliane Ellbogen, lawyer in intellectual property law at the Fasken firm in Montreal, to The Canadian Press last month. of January.

It is with these same concerns that the signatories of Saturday’s letter call on the government to review the details of its bill with organizations representing businesses and businesses in order to better take into account the impact of the measures and to preserve ” economic health [des] businesses and the well-being of Quebecers.”

On February 24, the CCCD presented a brief in Quebec, on which it has not yet received feedback. “There’s not much we can do other than maintain contact,” says Michel Rochette.

The ministry remains, it seems, open to dialogue, since Mr. Roberge assured in a press scrum on March 22 that he would take into account the comments on the bill so that “the regulation is properly applied, then that ‘ideally all services that are currently available remain available’. He then qualified his remarks by insisting on “the right of Quebecers to be welcomed in French, to be served in French, to have objects that are labeled in French so that we can understand what we are buying, so that we know what is in the products. » “I think it’s non-negotiable,” he insisted.

The Ministry of the French Language did not respond to our requests for comment.

With Stéphane Rolland, The Canadian Press