According to proposals circulating within the Trudeau government, these measures would be presented at the beginning of 2021 in a white paper which will launch a consultation on federal language policy. The file has been the subject of much discussion among MPs and ministers in recent months, but has yet to be approved by the cabinet, according to our sources.
New measures to promote the use of French and protect Francophone workers would form part of the reform of the Official Languages Act that has been awaited for years. Thus, this law would apply for the first time to Quebec businesses in sectors such as financial services, telecommunications and international and interprovincial transport.
Ottawa wants to fill a legal void by creating new language obligations for businesses under its authority. These companies are not currently subject to the Charter of the French language in Quebec, although many adhere to it voluntarily.
In an interview Monday evening with Céline Galipeau, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not lift the veil on the intentions of his government. However, he spoke positively of a letter recently published by six former premiers of Quebec, asking that Bill 101 apply to businesses under federal jurisdiction.
I also greatly appreciated the letter from all of the former premiers of Quebec who stressed the importance of defending French. I completely agree
, he said. We will continue to work to protect the French language in Quebec and across the country.
The Liberals do not want to free up their jurisdiction
Many sources say that in return, the Trudeau government has no intention of ceding powers to the Quebec government over the language of work in these companies.
We won’t let the province do it for us
, says a liberal source.
As much as there is an appetite for a new approach to language matters among several Quebec MPs and ministers in Ottawa, there is also a desire to maintain a federal role in protecting the rights of Anglophones in Quebec.
This approach is seen as a compromise between the traditional position of the Liberal Party of Canada in favor of linguistic minorities and a new desire within the government to protect French in Quebec. The Speech from the Throne this fall advanced for the first time that the federal government had the responsibility to protect and promote French not only outside Quebec, but also in Quebec
.
According to a 2013 federal study, approximately 135,000 employees in Quebec are not covered by either the Official Languages Act or the Charter of the French language.
Given that these workers form a small part of the labor force in Quebec, the Liberals say that the language measures in these companies are largely symbolic
. Large companies in the field of telecommunications and financial services are already acting exactly like other large companies located in Quebec.
In practical terms, it doesn’t make a big difference
, says another liberal source.
The pressure is building
The Caquista government has been stepping up interventions to force Ottawa to act in the linguistic field for months.
In August, the minister responsible for reforming Bill 101 in Quebec, Simon Jolin-Barrette, told The Canadian Press that he would wise that companies under federal jurisdiction be subject to the Charter of the French language
.
