Doing business in Quebec or have employees there? Bill 14, which amends the Charter of the French Language (formerly Bill 96), strengthens francization requirements for businesses. With the latest provisions taking effect on June 1, 2025, compliance has shifted from optional to essential for any business that wants to operate confidently in the Quebec market.
At ITC Global, we take the stress out of OQLF compliance, protect you from penalties, and help you secure your francization certificate quickly so your business can thrive with confidence.
Bill 14 requires business not only to use French, but to ensure it is the dominant language in all commercial and internal communications, including contracts, invoicing, packaging, signage, websites, software, HR materials, training, and more. French content must appear more prominently than any other language.
This applies to:
Key OQLF requirement: As soon as you have 25 or more employees in Quebec, you must register with the OQLF and implement a formal francization process.
The penalties are significant. Fines range from CAD 3,000 to 30,000 per violation, with higher amounts in the event of repeat offenses or failure to remedy non-compliance. The OQLF may also suspend or revoke a francization certificate and seek injunctions.
Oversight and complaints are increasing: there were close to 6,900 complaints in 2022–2023, with almost half being related to packaging, one quarter to signage, and more than ten percent to websites.
We support you at every stage, adjusting our role to fit your organization’s size and maturity.
Once registered with the OQLF, you must submit an analysis of your linguistic situation. We either conduct this assessment for you or work with you to develop it, identifying:
We help you:
We build a realistic program that meets OQLF expectations:
We translate and localize your content with a high standard of legal and cultural accuracy (raw machine translation alone does not meet Bill 96 requirements). This includes:
To support lasting compliance, we train:
If your organization has 100 or more employees in Quebec, a francization committee is mandatory. We can:
Once certification is obtained, the OQLF requires follow-up reports every three years. We help you:
Any business or employer operating in Quebec must comply with the Charter of the French Language as strengthened by Bill 14. The determining factor is the number of employees.
Once a company has 25 employees for at least six months, it is required to follow the formal OQLF francization process, which includes registration, linguistic assessment, a francization program if required, and certification.
Companies with fewer than 25 employees are not subject to mandatory formal francization, but general obligations still apply, including:
In addition, companies with 5 to 24 employees have reporting obligations to the OQLF. These include attesting to employees’ French proficiency and reporting the percentage of non-French-speaking staff. Such companies may also be offered for francization support services through Francisation Québec.
Public-sector bodies (ministries, municipalities, schools, healthcare institutions, etc.) are also required to use French in an exemplary manner, subject to the specific exceptions provided for by law.
Registration with the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) is mandatory for businesses that employ 25 or more people and have done so for at least six months.
For companies with 25 or more employees, the deadline to register and set out on the francization process was June 1, 2025. Companies with 50 or more employees are presumed to already be registered.
Once a company has submitted its registration application and has received the OQLF certificate of registration, it must complete and submit its linguistic self-assessment within three months.
If the OQLF determines that the use of French is not sufficiently prevalent within the organization, the company must submit a proposed francization program within three months of receiving the notice denying immediate certification.
French must be the primary language used in the workplace. Content that must be drafted in French or made available in French includes, in particular:
The translation method used must be suited to the document’s purpose and legal significance.AI-based translation tools may be cost-effective for large volumes of internal communications. However, professional translation services are strongly recommended for legal and regulatory documents. Relying on readily available machine translation tools for legal documents would be imprudent and may expose the company to compliance risks.
To obtain a francization certificate, a company must first register with the OQLF (if it employs 25 or more people). It must then submit a detailed self-assessment of French usage within the organization.
If the OQLF determines that the use of French is prevalent or sufficient, certification is granted upon approval. If French usage is deemed insufficient, the company must implement and complete a francization program aimed at standardizing the use of French at all levels of the organization. Once this objective is met, the OQLF issues the francization certificate.
A francization committee is mandatory for companies employing 100 or more people. The OQLF may also require companies with fewer than 100 employees to establish such a committee if the use of French is considered insufficient. The committee is responsible for conducting the linguistic assessment, developing the francization program where applicable, overseeing its implementation, and preparing the three-year reports to be submitted to the OQLF. This committee is composed of four or six members, with half representing employees and the other half appointed by management.
No. Once a francization certificate has been issued, the company must continue to ensure the standard use of French within the organization.
Every three years, the company is required to submit a report to the OQLF on the use of French. If the OQLF determines, following its review, that French is no longer sufficiently prevalent, it may require the company to develop and implement an action plan. In such cases, the OQLF has the authority to suspend compliance certification.
Failure to comply with certain provisions of Bill 96, or with an order issued by the OQLF or the Minister, may result in fines.
For individuals, fines range from CAD 700 to 7,000. For legal entities or organizations, fines range from CAD 3,000 to 30,000. These amounts are doubled for a first repeat offense and tripled for each subsequent offense.
Public bodies may not enter into contracts with, or award grants to, companies subject to the francization process (25 or more employees) if those companies:
In addition, public bodies may not award grants to companies with five or more employees if they have refused French-language training services offered by Francisation Québec or failed to comply with the agreed terms.
Failure to comply with francization requirements may result in the loss of eligibility for government grants and contracts with the Government of Quebec and its agencies.
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