MONTREAL — The chief executives of some of Quebec’s leading technology firms are calling on the CAQ government to suspend a new law that restricts the use of languages other than French, saying it “is threatening to do enormous damage to the province’s economy.”

“Quebec is facing a labour shortage, and in the tech sector, the scarcity of skilled talent is especially intense,” reads an open letter to Premier François Legault, signed by 37 CEOs and published Tuesday. “Successful Quebec companies need to rely on global recruitment and immigration to fuel innovation, and bringing newcomers to Quebec is more difficult under the requirements of the new language law.” 

The signatories include Louis Têtu of Quebec City-based AI-powered search and personalization services company Coveo, Stingray’s Eric Boyko and Germain Lamonde, the executive chairman of Quebec City-based EXFO. The business lobby group Canadian Council of Innovators (CCI) organized the letter. 

The letter is a response to Bill 96, an update of the province’s language laws that Quebec’s National Assembly voted to pass into law in May. The law limits the provision of English-language governmental services to new arrivals to the province to six months, after which all “civil administration” services must be provided in French. (The province’s college of doctors has said this may include healthcare services.) 

The CEOs say the requirement to learn French within six months “imposes an unrealistic deadline, as newcomers struggle with multiple challenges related to a life-changing move to a new home in Quebec.”

“It’s not even [enough] time for the family to come down. It’s nothing. This doesn’t make sense, and I don’t see being able to attract people from other countries here with this law,” said signatory Guillaume Bazinet in an interview with The Logic. Bazinet is CEO of FX Innovation, a Montreal-based digital-transformation company. 

The law imposes the Charte de la langue française on businesses with 25 to 49 employees, meaning most small- and medium-sized businesses must have “francization committees” and obtain “francization certificates” to ensure that the use of French “remains generalized within the enterprise.” Prior to the adoption of Bill 96, only businesses with 50 or more employees had to abide by the Charte de la langue française. 

“The overwhelming majority of Quebec technology companies participate in international markets, and work with global, multidisciplinary teams. Legal requirements that force companies to operate primarily in French impose an extra burden when working with customers and partners all around the world,” the letter reads.

The law also allows inspectors from the Office québécois de la langue française to enter businesses without a warrant to inspect employee correspondence, computer systems and electronic devices to ensure proper use of French. Fines can range up to $20,000. 

“I’m scared about being audited, because our meetings that include the entire company are partly in English,” said Bazinet, who says the law will force him to hire workers to telework from outside Quebec to get around the law’s language provisions. 

The letter further criticizes Francisation Québec, the government’s French language learning portal set to go online next year. “Bill 96 is already imposing a mandate to learn French without offering additional support. By the time your government creates Francisation Québec, the law will already have discouraged global workers from choosing Québec as a new place to build a life and grow a family. This has a direct impact on the competitiveness and attractiveness of Quebec’s most critical sectors and most promising companies,” the letter reads.

Quebec is in the midst of a chronic labour shortage, and at six per cent has the country’s second-highest job vacancy rate after British Columbia, according to Statistics Canada data. At the same time, the province’s five-year immigration retention rate is 79.1 per cent—nearly 15 percentage points lower than neighbouring Ontario, according to Statistics Canada data. There are more than 1,300 startups based in Montreal, and half have a presence in the U.S., according to a 2020 Bonjour Startup Montréal report. On Monday, Legault said he wanted to turn the eastern part of the island into “a new Silicon Valley.”

“The law creates another layer of concern,” CCI director of government and public affairs Pierre-Philippe Lortie said. “The potential employee decides to go to Ontario, Calgary or in the non-Quebec Province. It makes my life more difficult to sell the idea of coming to Quebec.”