Quebec Will Only Use French When Writing To Governments & Businesses Starting Next Year

Quebec French-language Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette announced that — beginning May 5, 2022 — government departments, organizations and institutions in the province must write exclusively in French when communicating with other government bodies and "legal persons," such as companies.*

This includes school boards as well as health and social services.

Editor's Choice: This Interactive Map Shows What Montreal's Future Metro Will Look Like

This announcement means section 1 of Bill 104 — an Act to amend the Charter of the French language, which was adopted in 2002 — is coming into effect.

In May 2019, the National Assembly unanimously adopted a motion asking the government to implement section 1 of Bill 104 as soon as possible, the statement says.

"The fact that this section was put on the back burner for nearly 20 years by previous governments has contributed to the growing spread of institutional bilingualism that is incompatible with a state whose only official language is French," said Jolin-Barrette.

"The Quebec government must be exemplary."

Bill 104 gives the government the power to determine cases, conditions or circumstances in which another language can be used in addition to French. 

*An earlier version of this article, using a press release from the government, misstated the entities with whom the government plans to communicate only in French. It has been updated with the correct information.