OQFL report: Use of French declining in Montreal businesses

The reception and service in French in Quebec businesses is declining across the province, but particularly in the Montreal and Gatineau regions – a situation that leaves more and more Quebecers indifferent, especially among young people.

The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) published a study on Tuesday entitled “Langue d’accueil et langue de service dans les commerces du Québec en 2023: consommatrices et consommateurs,” and the authors did not hide their concerns.

“There are several questions about customer behaviors and perceptions,” said the OQLF. “Are greetings and service in a language other than French now normalized, resulting in feeling indifferent among some customers and a reduction in their negative feelings when they are not greeted or served in French? Is this experience, once less frequent and perceived more negatively, tending to become more commonplace?”

Regional portraits

This fourth OQLF survey – the others having taken place in 2010, 2012 and 2018 – includes regional data for the first time, with data sets specific to the Montreal, Quebec City, Gatineau, and Sherbrooke regions, with respondents from elsewhere being grouped in the “other territories” category.

The survey’s findings are not all gloomy.

For example, it shows that French language service remain dominant in Quebec, at around 70 per cent. However, nearly four out of five respondents (78 per cent) said they prefer French as the language of service in businesses, with 14 per cent having no preference and eight per cent leaning towards English. It is worth noting that most allophones across Quebec (52 per cent) prefer to be served in French, while 30 per cent have no preference.

Service: Sherbrooke and Gatineau on opposite sides

However, nearly a third (31 per cent) of customers received service in a language other than French in a business in the six months preceding the survey.

This proportion falls to just 11 per cent in the Sherbrooke region, which has the best response rate in French, while it’s the highest in the Gatineau region (44 per cent).

Despite this, around half of respondents agree to continue the exchange in another language when the service is not first offered in French. The study also shows that two out of five customers “experience negative feelings” when they have not received service in French, but one in three is indifferent and 12 per cent are surprised, but nothing more.

Customers in the Quebec City region (47 per cent) and “other territories” (48 per cent) are the most likely to experience these negative feelings.

Indifference among young people

By age group, 18 to 34-year-olds are the least likely (31 per cent) to experience negative feelings and they are also the most likely (41 per cent) to be completely indifferent to be serviced in a language other than French. By comparison, indifference is reported by only 30 per cent of those aged 35 and over.

In any case, indifference, or negative feelings, almost half of customers (46 per cent) would return to a business that served them in a language other than French because it does not bother them, while only 12 per cent would not return.

In Montreal, more than half (52 per cent) of the clientele would return to a business that served them in a language other than French because it does not bother them, and about a quarter (27 per cent) would return, but only out of necessity.

Same observations

Before the service, there is, of course, the reception and here too, 30 per cent of customers were greeted in a business in a language other than French. This proportion climbs to 40 per cent in the Montreal region, but it’s the first decrease since 2010. This proportion rose from 27 per cent in 2010 to 45.6 per cent in 2018, before falling back to 40 per cent in 2023.

Similar to customer service, the same phenomenon of greater indifference and fewer negative feelings can be observed among 18 to 24-year-olds compared to those aged 35 and over when the greeting is in a language other than French.

“The results of this study,” wrote the authors, “show that in 2023, across Quebec, the lack of reaction among customers received and served in a language other than French tends to increase. In addition, among all customers, including French-speaking customers, many rarely or never ask for service in French when it is not first offered in that language.”

Call to the public

In an email to The Canadian Press, the Minister responsible for the French language, Jean-François Roberge, stated that “we must be proactive in the French language file” and called on Quebecers “to demand to be served in French in Quebec businesses, and to file a complaint with the OQLF when this is not the case.”

The survey was conducted by telephone and online with 3,822 respondents between Nov. 7 and Dec. 15, 2023. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.6 per cent with a 95 per cent confidence interval.

The territory designated by the authors as the Montreal Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) is, however, much smaller than the one that Statistics Canada designates as the Montreal CMA. Additionally, the sample includes a proportion of Francophones (65 per cent) that is much lower than that found in the population (77.5) and proportions of Anglophones (15 per cent) and allophones (20 per cent) that are greater than those of the population (10.4 per cent and 7.9 per cent respectively), but the methodological notes specify that “this method ensures that the results for the people whose mother tongue is English or a language other than French or English are well represented.”

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews