The leaders of dozens of Quebec-based technology companies are warning Premier François Legault that the province’s new language law, known as Bill 96, will make it hard to recruit talent and threatens to do “enormous damage to the province’s economy.”
Bill 96 was adopted last month and aims to strengthen Quebec’s language laws, with new and expanded rules for businesses, harsher penalties for violations and limits on who can access certain government services in English.
One part of the law stipulates that immigrants who have been in Quebec for six months or more will only be able to access most government services in French.
In a letter published Tuesday, more than 30 executives called on Legault and the province to delay implementation of Bill 96 until there is better French-language support, such as tutoring, available for workers.
“We have team members who come from South America, who come from Europe. We need to give them more time and more support,” said Lloyd Segal, president and CEO of Repare Therapeutics, a Montreal-based biotechnology company that develops cancer drugs, and one of the letter’s signatories.
“These phenomenal researchers who embrace coming to Quebec — and everything about coming to Quebec. They can go anywhere and we don’t want to lose them.”
The Repare Therapeutics lab in Montreal develops cancer drugs, but the company’s CEO worries the province’s new language laws will make it harder to recruit workers. (Alison Northcott/CBC)
Until now, some of the province’s French-language requirements for businesses only applied to companies with more than 50 employees. But under Bill 96, those rules will also apply to smaller companies with more than 25 people on staff.
Repare has more than 50 employees, so it had already been subject to French requirements since it started operating in Quebec six years ago.
The problem now, Segal said, is that the new law could make his company less attractive to the talent it needs, noting that Repare is already competing with businesses around the world in the face of a labour shortage across the tech sector.
WATCH | Head of the Council of Canadian Innovators explains the calls to delay Bill 96:
Tech companies say Bill 96 could hurt Quebec economy
19 hours ago
Duration 1:00
The head of the Council of Canadian Innovators explains why dozens of Quebec tech companies have signed a letter asking the province to delay implementing its updated language law.
Benjamin Bergen is the president of the Council of Canadian Innovators, the organization behind the letter. He acknowledges the importance of protecting Quebec’s culture, but said the law was prepared hastily and will make it harder for domestic companies to grow.
“You’re actually damaging your own culture and your own economy,” said Bergen.
‘Duty to protect our common language’
Legault has said that strengthening the province’s language laws is a question of survival when it comes to the French language in Quebec.
“We are proud to be a Francophone nation in North America and it’s our duty to protect our common language,” he said in May, when Bill 96 was adopted.
His Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government has said the law won’t be applied for another year, as the province works to set up a new French language ministry to develop language policies for the public service, municipalities and government organizations.
There are several parts of the legislation that will touch businesses and many companies are now looking for guidance on how to comply, said Brittany Carson, a partner in labour and employment law with the Montreal-based firm Lavery.
For instance, companies with more than 25 employees will need to ensure the use of French is generalized in the workplace — a requirement that previously only applied to larger businesses, with more than 50 employees.
Quebec Premier François Legault, shown here at the Quebec Legislature on Friday, has said Bill 96 is necessary to protect the French language. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)
The Office québécois de la langue française, or OQLF, which enforces the French-language charter, will be looking to ensure communication with staff, training materials, policies and contracts are all in French, said Carson.
“What does that mean for the person sitting in New York City, who’s managing employees here in Quebec? Obviously, the Charter is not going to force them to speak French,” she said.
“I think that companies are going to have to start thinking about making sure that they’re respecting the fundamental right of their Quebec employees to work in French.”
Despite fielding many questions from clients, Carson said she hasn’t heard of anyone considering leaving Quebec because of the stricter rules, in part because many larger companies have already been subject to the province’s French language rules for decades.
Montréal International, the city’s economic promotion agency, said it has received an influx of calls from investors about Bill 96, with questions and concerns about immigration and French requirements for employees.
But Stéphane Paquet, the agency’s president and CEO, said in a statement that he doesn’t expect the debate around the new law to drive talent away.
“Investors consider multiple factors when evaluating their options for investing in a city, including the current economic climate and the existing ecosystem,” he said, adding that the agency’s recruitment activities currently target mainly French-speaking talent pools.
For his part, Segal said he is hopeful the Quebec government will help businesses comply and clear up uncertainty about how the law will be applied and enforced. He has no plans to move his company outside of Quebec, but worries other companies will be dissuaded from setting up here.
“I have deep concerns as one of the builders of our biotech community here in Montreal that, without more certainty, we are almost certainly going to lose new businesses that are being formed.”
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales rose 1.4 per cent to $71 billion in July, helped by higher sales in the petroleum and coal and chemical product subsectors.
The increase followed a 1.7 per cent decrease in June.
The agency says sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector gained 6.7 per cent to total $8.6 billion in July as most refineries sold more, helped by higher prices and demand.
Chemical product sales rose 5.3 per cent to $5.6 billion in July, boosted by increased sales of pharmaceutical and medicine products.
Sales of wood products fell 4.8 per cent for the month to $2.9 billion, the lowest level since May 2023.
In constant dollar terms, overall manufacturing sales rose 0.9 per cent in July.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
TORONTO – Strength in the base metal and technology sectors helped Canada’s main stock index gain almost 100 points on Friday, while U.S. stock markets climbed to their best week of the year.
“It’s been almost a complete opposite or retracement of what we saw last week,” said Philip Petursson, chief investment strategist at IG Wealth Management.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 297.01 points at 41,393.78. The S&P 500 index was up 30.26 points at 5,626.02, while the Nasdaq composite was up 114.30 points at 17,683.98.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 93.51 points at 23,568.65.
While last week saw a “healthy” pullback on weaker economic data, this week investors appeared to be buying the dip and hoping the central bank “comes to the rescue,” said Petursson.
Next week, the U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut its key interest rate for the first time in several years after it significantly hiked it to fight inflation.
But the magnitude of that first cut has been the subject of debate, and the market appears split on whether the cut will be a quarter of a percentage point or a larger half-point reduction.
Petursson thinks it’s clear the smaller cut is coming. Economic data recently hasn’t been great, but it hasn’t been that bad either, he said — and inflation may have come down significantly, but it’s not defeated just yet.
“I think they’re going to be very steady,” he said, with one small cut at each of their three decisions scheduled for the rest of 2024, and more into 2025.
“I don’t think there’s a sense of urgency on the part of the Fed that they have to do something immediately.
A larger cut could also send the wrong message to the markets, added Petursson: that the Fed made a mistake in waiting this long to cut, or that it’s seeing concerning signs in the economy.
It would also be “counter to what they’ve signaled,” he said.
More important than the cut — other than the new tone it sets — will be what Fed chair Jerome Powell has to say, according to Petursson.
“That’s going to be more important than the size of the cut itself,” he said.
In Canada, where the central bank has already cut three times, Petursson expects two more before the year is through.
“Here, the labour situation is worse than what we see in the United States,” he said.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.61 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down 32 cents at US$68.65 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down five cents at US$2.31 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$30.10 at US$2,610.70 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents US$4.24 a pound.
— With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Strength in the base metal and technology sectors helped Canada’s main stock index gain almost 100 points on Friday, while U.S. stock markets also climbed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 93.51 points at 23,568.65.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 297.01 points at 41,393.78. The S&P 500 index was up 30.26 points at 5,626.02, while the Nasdaq composite was up 114.30 points at 17,683.98.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.61 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down 32 cents at US$68.65 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down five cents at US$2.31 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$30.10 at US$2,610.70 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents US$4.24 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
