Several cities and counties will soon vote to maintain their bilingual status despite a small population of English-speaking citizens. The evidence, the PQ says, reformed the law by 101 teeth.
With only 7.2% English speaking residents, the City of Otterburn Park would like to continue to be able to communicate with its citizens in the language of Shakespeare when needed.
The Greenfield Park district on Montreal’s south coast, which is part of Longueuil, will also continue to communicate in both languages to meet the needs of 26% of its English-speaking citizens.
The same is true in the Pierrefonds-Roxboro neighborhood, which is part of the city of Montreal, where only 29% of residents say they speak English as their first language.
The scenario is repeated in Kirkland and Dorval, where the English-speaking minority is above 40% but below the 50% statutory threshold to be recognized as a bilingual city.
Harmless Enough Law
Bill 96, approved last June by François Legault’s government, promised to clean up the 47 municipalities in this situation, but the text of the law contained a loophole.
The Bill 101 reform allows bilingual municipalities to maintain their status by submitting a simple resolution to the municipal council within 120 days of receiving a notice from the Office québécois de la langue française.
Several cities have already announced their intention to pass such resolutions during the month of January.
“As soon as Bill 96 was studied, I warned everyone that this law would be quite benign and would give the impression of acting in a concrete way, but these are essentially just symbols,” says PQ MP Pascal Bérubé today.
A simple application will allow communities to maintain the status quo “even if the English-speaking population is a very small minority,” he laments.
The Parti Québécois had set the minimum threshold for offering services in both languages at 33%.
In particular, Pascal Bérubé fears that maintaining bilingual services will lead to cities requiring English skills from new hires.
Bill 96 bans it, but Kirkland Mayor Michel Gibson recently substantiated the PQ member’s fears. Without requiring it in job offers, English skills are discussed during job interviews, he told the Montreal Gazette. “We need bilingual people for our city,” he said.
The minister defends himself
The Mayor reiterates that the services will be offered in both languages and sees no need to remove an English option.
“I don’t want this group of nationalists to dictate what services we can offer our residents,” he told the English-language daily.
In the office of the new Minister for French Language, Jean-François Roberge, we reject the criticism of the PQ, insisting on the balance of the law, which “allows French to be strengthened in Quebec while at the same time conferring the rights of the English-speaking population true minority”.
Cities with bilingual status
% of English speakers
Otterburn Park 7.2%
Rosmere 12.1%
Ulverton 14.5%
Thousand Islands 17%
Nojan 17.9%
Morin Heights 18.3%
Mont Royal 18.5%
blood 20.2%
Hatley 20.4%
Havelock 22.3%
Restigouche-southeast part 22.9%
Cadieux island 24%
Saint Georges de Clarenceville 25.5%
Source: Government of Quebec, 2016 Census
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