Quebec’s new language rules officially in effect as of Sunday

Businesses must now comply with new rules on commercial signage in French in Quebec, as provisions of Bill 96 come into force Sunday.

These new measures apply to outdoor commercial signage, trademarks on products and the use of French within businesses.

To comply with the new regulations, the space devoted to French text on a sign visible outside a business must be at least twice as large as that devoted to text in another language.

The Ministry of the French Language hopes to promote the “clear predominance of French,” according to a news release issued last Friday.

With regard to product labels, “the ingredients, colour, fragrance or other characteristics of the product must now appear in French on the product or on a permanently attached medium,” the ministry said.

The new regulations state that only the name under which the product is marketed and the name of the company may remain in another language.

“Products that do not comply with the new rules may be marketed until June 1, 2027 if, among other things, they were manufactured before June 1, 2025 and no French version of the trademark has been registered as of June 26, 2024,’ the release states.

Recent measures require companies that employ between 25 and 49 people for a period of six months to register with the Office québécois de la langue française and commit to a francization process.

Formerly Bill 96, the Act respecting the official and common language of Quebec, French, was passed in June 2022, amending the Charter of the French Language. These amendments established French as the sole official language of the province.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews