People are taking part in a protest against Act 96 in Montreal on May 26. Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press
The revision of Quebec’s most radical language legislation in nearly half a century is alarming technology companies in the province, whose executives say tightening requirements for immigrants and businesses to use French threatens economic damage huge and durable.
Leaders of 37 Quebec-based technology companies are calling for the implementation of controversial language legislation, Bill 96, to be frozen until the government of Prime Minister François Legault has established tutorials in French and other tools companies need to comply. the. .
Without that support, executives say, the industry’s best talent simply won’t move to Quebec, and companies in the province will move some of their future investments and staff elsewhere.
“If the best and brightest innovators, technologists and business creators gravitate to Toronto, Edmonton, Vancouver and Halifax instead of Montreal and Quebec City, it will cause permanent damage to the economic prosperity of our province.” leaders say in an open letter to Mr. Legault, which premiered on Tuesday. “This is already happening, but it’s not too late to change course.”
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The warning is one of the most significant to date in the business community about legislation, which will affect a large part of daily life in Quebec, from how people receive medical care to how the courts work. That the leaders of some of the fastest growing companies in the province are willing to talk about it publicly suggests that Mr. Legault, who is now preparing to win re-election in October, has not addressed his concerns about the possible consequences of Bill 96.
Executives include native francophones such as Louis Têtu, of the software company Coveo Solutions Inc. CVO-T; Eric Boyko, of Stingray Digital Group Inc. RAY-AT; and Germain Lamonde, of EXFO Inc., a provider of telecommunications testing equipment and software in Quebec City. In the letter, they say they are not against the spirit of the legislation, but call for better planning to make sure the law does not create more problems than it solves.
Several of the companies whose leaders oppose law enforcement have received funding from the province, either through tax credits or through the Investissement Québec branch of government, which offers grants, capital injections and credit. Others have received venture capital from the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the province’s public pension management giant.
“This is an existential crisis for Quebec technology companies,” said Ben Bergen, chairman of the Council of Canadian Innovators, which has 19 companies that signed the charter as members. “The government is moving forward with this strict restriction, they are really hitting Quebec’s technology ecosystem.”
The Quebec government passed Bill 96 in late May in an attempt to correct a linguistic pendulum that says it is too far removed from the use and adoption of French in everyday life. The new legislation includes measures to make French “markedly predominant” in commercial signage and requires companies with 25 to 49 employees to comply with French-language certification obligations under the same strict standards that previously applied to companies. from 50 to 99 employees.
Under the new law, the government will create a new administrative unit within the Quebec immigration department called Francisation Québec. Their responsibilities will they include the coordination and provision of French learning services for people who cannot function in the common language of Quebec. But the unit is not scheduled to launch until June next year, according to the website of the OQLF, the Quebec language enforcement agency.
“Actually, Bill 96 already imposes a mandate to learn French without providing additional support,” technology leaders say in their letter to the prime minister. “By the time your government creates Francisation Québec, the law will have discouraged global workers from choosing Quebec as a new place to build a life and grow a family. This has a direct impact on the competitiveness and attractiveness of more sectors. critics and the most promising companies in Quebec. “
Many business leaders in the province have expressed support for strengthening French, although they warn that new legislation could impose additional costs on companies and complicate their recruitment efforts at a time when Canada is facing a acute labor shortage. One of the most important changes is that immigrants who settle in Quebec will not be able to deal with the government in any language other than French once they have been in the province for more than six months.
Technology leaders say that this has led to recruitment efforts in chaos, especially because companies cannot access adequate language training even if they are willing to pay for it themselves, because demand for these services has exceeded supply. . Without that support, Quebec companies will begin looking to open offices in other parts of the country and relocate staff, Bergen said. He said some might regret leaving Quebec directly.
The developer of cancer drugs from Montreal Repare Therapeutics Inc. RPTX-Q illustrates the situation. The company announced earlier this month that it had reached a major agreement with pharmaceutical giant F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG to develop and market the Montreal startup’s camonsertib drug. The agreement is very important for the company.
Repare CEO Lloyd Segal said he would love to attract more international experts to Quebec to work on this agreement. But the clarity he was able to offer these people in past years about their work and their life situations, that is, how they will work in French, is now blurred, he said. And so Repair could have no choice but to hire more people for its Boston office instead of its Montreal headquarters, he said.
Quebec used to be the best place in the world to grow a technology company because of its diversity and its highly educated and tech-savvy population, said Mr. Segal.
“The risk here is a quiet exodus of some of the most valuable growth companies Quebec can ever create,” he added. “No one will announce that they chose to add 20 people to Toronto, Boston or Vancouver. You won’t read it in the newspaper. The notes will not be leaked. It will just happen.”
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