Bill 96, which aims to strengthen the use of French in Quebec, does not suit a good number of Quebec entrepreneurs in the technology sector. In an open letter published Tuesday morning, three dozen of them — including the CEOs of Coveo, Stingray and Optel — argue that a hasty application of this law “threatens to cause enormous damage to the provincial economy.
“You can’t have a dynamic Francophone society if you don’t have a prosperous economy to support it,” the entrepreneurs launch from the outset in this letter addressed to Premier François Legault. The signatories are members of the Canadian Council of Innovators (CCI), a pan-Canadian organization founded in 2015 by Ontario businessman Jim Balsillie.
CCI’s mandate is to help Canadian technology companies become more competitive. Faced with a particularly severe labor shortage in recent years, the organization has regularly pleaded in recent years for a relaxation of the rules governing the labor market and immigration, in particular.
The Quebec entrepreneurs who signed the letter published Tuesday morning say they agree with the “spirit of Law 96”, which aims to strengthen the protection of Quebec’s distinct French-speaking identity. However, its application must be “paused” until tools are made available to businesses and the public through Francisation Quebec and these tools have been duly presented by the government, they suggest.
One more burden
The job market is tighter than ever in several sectors of economic activity, and the technos are no exception. In this highly globalized industry, competition to attract skilled workers and entrepreneurs is fierce from region to region. Already, several Quebec technology companies have been complaining for months about losing their best employees to foreign companies. Some see the new francization measures that the Quebec government would like to impose as an additional burden that could accentuate this new brain drain.
For example, the requirement included in Bill 96 to master the French language sufficiently to obtain services from the Quebec government only six months after the arrival of newcomers seems “unrealistic” in the eyes of the CCI. Integration into a new society involves several challenges that go well beyond the language of use, such as housing, employment, etc., pleads the organization.
“If our best innovators and business builders move to Toronto, Edmonton, Vancouver and Halifax instead of staying in Montreal and Quebec, it will cause permanent damage to the economic health of our province,” write the business people. in their letter. “This phenomenon is already very real, but it is not too late to lessen its impact. »
The CCI is not alone in fearing a negative impact of Bill 96 on immigration and on the Quebec labor market. In recent months, immigrant groups as well as representatives of the Anglophone and Aboriginal communities have publicly expressed fears that the new law will penalize and disadvantage them both in access to public services and to the labor market.