Tech companies ask Quebec premier to pause French requirement for immigrants
BNN Bloomberg
A group of Canadian technology companies is calling on the Quebec premier to pause a bill requiring immigrants to learn French within six months of arriving in the province.
The 37 companies argued in a Tuesday letter to François Legault that the time frame immigrants have before they must use French for official purposes under Bill 96 is "an unrealistic deadline" for people adapting to a new home and could “do enormous damage to the province’s economy.”
The letter orchestrated by the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) and signed by Coveo, Sportlogiq, CloudOps and Petal executives describes the deadline as difficult to meet because the province won’t have language supports in place for newcomers through government entity Francisation Quebec until 2023, despite the bill receiving royal assent in June.
“By the time your government creates Francisation Quebec, the law will already have discouraged global workers from choosing Québec as a new place to build a life and grow a family,” the letter reads.
