Quebec and Ottawa find a compromise
(Ottawa) The Legault government did not succeed in making French the official and common language of federally regulated businesses, but it was able to convince the federal government to integrate other elements of the Charter of the French Language so that employees could work in the language of Molière.
"I'm going to call it a magnificent solution to a language problem we had," French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge said in an interview. "I'm reassured, and more than that, I'm satisfied."
Negotiations had been going well between Quebec and Ottawa for several weeks to try to find common ground. Mr. Roberge has met with the Minister of Official Languages, Ginette Petitpas Taylor, on several occasions, as well as with their office employees and officials.
"We weren't here a few months ago. We weren't even here a month ago, in February," he said.
It was difficult from a federal point of view to find a solution that was both good for francophone communities outside Quebec and for Quebec.
Jean-François Roberge, Minister of the French Language
"Finally, what we see today is a lot of mirror clauses where the Official Languages Act has been raised to the same level as the Charter of the French Language, and that, I think, there are not many people who believed in it," added the minister.
Liberal MP Marc Serré tabled a series of last-minute amendments to Bill C-13 on Friday afternoon to harmonize the reform of the Official Languages Act with that of the Charter of the French Language. They were all adopted unanimously.
"We remove ambiguity"These amendments generalize the use of French as a language of work. Senior leaders will have to be proficient in this language, job postings will have to be in French, as will employment contracts and communications. Companies will also have to justify hiring employees who do not speak French
Liberal MP Marc Serré is a member of the Standing Committee on Official Languages.
"We remove the ambiguity," explained Mr. Serré. Now, there is collaboration between Quebec and Canada to ensure that services in French will be offered, regardless of whether the employer chooses [one of the two languages]. »
Bill C-13 still gives employees of banks, telecommunications companies, airlines or railways the choice of working in English, but government sources have indicated that the vast majority have registered with the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF), as required by "Bill 96." This reform of the Charter of the French Language was adopted by the Legault government in May 2022.
"Therefore, the right of Quebec francophones to speak French and work in French in federally chartered companies will now be guaranteed," explained Mr. Roberge. The same is true for regions with a strong francophone predominance outside the country. »
Air Canada and Canadian National (CN) have made headlines for their failure to give French sufficient space on their boards of directors. CN employees also complained that English took precedence over French in their Quebec workplace. Both companies recently announced that they would comply with the new provisions of the Charter of the French Language.
Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Federal Minister of Official Languages
Minister Petitpas Taylor reiterated the Trudeau government's desire "for private businesses under federal jurisdiction to do their fair share to curb the decline of French."
"We have in our hands a robust bill (C-13) that gives us the means to achieve our ambitions to address this decline in French and support our official language minority communities and we look forward to making this legislation a reality," she said in a written statement.
The opposition is all satisfiedThis victory for the Legault government is bittersweet for the Bloc Quebecois, whose amendment to make French the only language of work in federally regulated businesses in Quebec was defeated by the Liberals and NDP MP Niki Ashton. Bloc MP Mario Beaulieu said he was pleased with the progress made.
"It's a step in the right direction," he acknowledged. This is not what the vast majority of Quebeckers wanted, which is to fully implement [the Charter of the French Language]. He went on to accuse the New Democrats of "repudiating their position a bit."
"We want to respect the ability of these two governments to manage this issue in the right way and not
to insert themselves to play politics," Ashton said.
Conservative MP Joël Godin highlighted the efforts of the opposition parties. "We have done an extraordinary job of putting pressure on the Government of Canada to force it to bend its knees a little," he said during the deliberations.
Applause erupted at the end of Friday's parliamentary committee meeting as the bill to modernize the Official Languages Act, an election promise of the Liberals, has just reached an important milestone. It was referred to the House of Commons for report stage preceding third reading. Then comes the study in the Senate. The government hopes for adoption by the end of parliamentary proceedings in June.
"I'm going to call it a magnificent solution to a language problem we had," French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge said in an interview. "I'm reassured, and more than that, I'm satisfied."
Negotiations had been going well between Quebec and Ottawa for several weeks to try to find common ground. Mr. Roberge has met with the Minister of Official Languages, Ginette Petitpas Taylor, on several occasions, as well as with their office employees and officials.
"We weren't here a few months ago. We weren't even here a month ago, in February," he said.
It was difficult from a federal point of view to find a solution that was both good for francophone communities outside Quebec and for Quebec.
Jean-François Roberge, Minister of the French Language
"Finally, what we see today is a lot of mirror clauses where the Official Languages Act has been raised to the same level as the Charter of the French Language, and that, I think, there are not many people who believed in it," added the minister.
Liberal MP Marc Serré tabled a series of last-minute amendments to Bill C-13 on Friday afternoon to harmonize the reform of the Official Languages Act with that of the Charter of the French Language. They were all adopted unanimously.
"We remove ambiguity"These amendments generalize the use of French as a language of work. Senior leaders will have to be proficient in this language, job postings will have to be in French, as will employment contracts and communications. Companies will also have to justify hiring employees who do not speak French
Liberal MP Marc Serré is a member of the Standing Committee on Official Languages.
"We remove the ambiguity," explained Mr. Serré. Now, there is collaboration between Quebec and Canada to ensure that services in French will be offered, regardless of whether the employer chooses [one of the two languages]. »
Bill C-13 still gives employees of banks, telecommunications companies, airlines or railways the choice of working in English, but government sources have indicated that the vast majority have registered with the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF), as required by "Bill 96." This reform of the Charter of the French Language was adopted by the Legault government in May 2022.
"Therefore, the right of Quebec francophones to speak French and work in French in federally chartered companies will now be guaranteed," explained Mr. Roberge. The same is true for regions with a strong francophone predominance outside the country. »
Air Canada and Canadian National (CN) have made headlines for their failure to give French sufficient space on their boards of directors. CN employees also complained that English took precedence over French in their Quebec workplace. Both companies recently announced that they would comply with the new provisions of the Charter of the French Language.
Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Federal Minister of Official Languages
Minister Petitpas Taylor reiterated the Trudeau government's desire "for private businesses under federal jurisdiction to do their fair share to curb the decline of French."
"We have in our hands a robust bill (C-13) that gives us the means to achieve our ambitions to address this decline in French and support our official language minority communities and we look forward to making this legislation a reality," she said in a written statement.
The opposition is all satisfiedThis victory for the Legault government is bittersweet for the Bloc Quebecois, whose amendment to make French the only language of work in federally regulated businesses in Quebec was defeated by the Liberals and NDP MP Niki Ashton. Bloc MP Mario Beaulieu said he was pleased with the progress made.
"It's a step in the right direction," he acknowledged. This is not what the vast majority of Quebeckers wanted, which is to fully implement [the Charter of the French Language]. He went on to accuse the New Democrats of "repudiating their position a bit."
"We want to respect the ability of these two governments to manage this issue in the right way and not
to insert themselves to play politics," Ashton said.
Conservative MP Joël Godin highlighted the efforts of the opposition parties. "We have done an extraordinary job of putting pressure on the Government of Canada to force it to bend its knees a little," he said during the deliberations.
Applause erupted at the end of Friday's parliamentary committee meeting as the bill to modernize the Official Languages Act, an election promise of the Liberals, has just reached an important milestone. It was referred to the House of Commons for report stage preceding third reading. Then comes the study in the Senate. The government hopes for adoption by the end of parliamentary proceedings in June.
