By Bryan Laprise

Local Journalism Initiative

A survey conducted by Léger on behalf of the Comité consultative des Québécoises et Québécois d’expression anglaise (CCQEA) revealed that around 32 per cent of employers in the province have changed their hiring practices as a result of Law 14.

Law 14, also known as Bill 96, reinforced the province’s position that French is the only official language of Québec. In addition to provisions that make French the predominant language on all signs and posters visible from outside of businesses and limiting the number of students that can attend English-language schools, it extended francization efforts to businesses of 25 employees or more.

Avoiding anglophones

The survey gathered responses from 500 employers. One in five expressed concerns about hiring English speakers and one-tenth pulled back from their retention of English-speakers or even terminated their employment. They cited concerns with complying with the latest regulations and the risk of penalties.

“Employers need clarity and support in navigating these requirements. Right now, they’re pulling back out of caution. That’s a missed opportunity,” CCQEA President John Buck stated in a press release.

Government-funded francization programs are available to meet the requirements set out by Law 14, but less than one-fifth of employers are aware of them, with fewer participating. The cost of training employees poses a challenge for some businesses. Many employers are left without the tools they would need in order to take advantage of qualified potential workers.

According to the full report published by the CCQEA, 45 per cent of companies that participated in the Leger survey had never hired English-speaking employees. This is particularly the case in Francophone businesses.

A third of employers reported changing their hiring practices due to Law 14. Fourteen per cent by being more cautious, 10 per cent by reducing hiring and eight per cent by not hiring English-speaking candidates.

“I can’t say that we are surprised,” said Sylvia Martin-Laforge, director general of TALQ, formerly the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN. TALQ is an advocacy organization for English speakers and other organizations. She explained that there has been “anecdotal evidence” on the effects of the legislation.

“It’s terrific that finally, a credible survey validates what we have been saying to this government for six years,” said Martin-Laforge. For the past six years, the TALQ and other organizations have spoken to ministers from the government about how English speakers face barriers in the Quebec labour market, according to Martin-Laforge.

Hiring English speakers

English-speakers are much more likely to be hired by English-language companies, finds the survey. Eighty-eight per cent of such companies had hired English speakers. Around three- quarters of bilingual companies surveyed had hired Anglophones. Companies in the Greater Montreal area averaged 70 per cent.

Some 41 per cent of companies responded to the survey their main reason for hiring English speakers was qualifications. This is above 29 per cent saying that the reason is to serve customers in English and 26 per cent for the need to use English in certain positions.

Companies that say that they’ve never hired English-speakers cite the need for French to complete the work (38 per cent). Not many English-speakers in the company’s regions and a lack of applications from that language group are equal at 26 per cent of companies.

“Often, it’s through family or connections that you find out about jobs. If you are not in a network, you won’t know about the jobs or be referred for [them],” said Martin-Laforge about the major challenged faced by English speakers. “The structure of the labour market is not easy for an English-speaker to get into. It is exacerbated by the laws that many employers don’t understand.”

According to her, there is a lot of linguistic insecurity for English-speakers who have lost confidence in their ability to speak Quebec’s predominant language even though they are perfectly capable of doing so, saying: “Most English-speaking Quebecers just need to bone up on their French. That’s it, that’s all.”

“These laws [such as Bill 84 and 96] that talk about identity, the need to speak French, the need to be French, the need to be a part of the French culture create an environment where English speakers looking for jobs in Quebec feel disenfranchised or feel that they might lose their jobs. It creates instability,” she explained.

Positive impacts of English speakers

A strong majority of employers who have hired English-speaking employees say it was a positive experience. Only two per cent of employers said the experience was negative. Three-quarters of the businesses that have hired English-speakers say that they’ve seen benefits, such as improved bilingual service, access to more talent, increased cultural diversity and access to new markets.

“In a time where there is a labour shortage in all sorts of sectors, this is not the time to start imposing coercive measures that are not tested,” opined the TALQ director. According to her, the francization programs which could help English-speakers join the labour market amidst more restrictive regulations are not understood nor available enough.

Employers who participated in the survey were asked to provide what they felt was the best strategy to better integrate English-speakers in into the provincial labour market. Nearly one- third thought it would be helpful to have more accessible language training programs, one- quarter said it would be for governments to incentivize hiring English-speakers and one-fifth said it would be to change the laws altogether.

In fact, according to Martin-Laforge, the push to better integrate English-speakers into the provincial labour market will eventually come from employers themselves. “There will come a time where people will say: ‘We just want the skills, we don’t care what language they speak,’” hypothesized the director general. She thinks this will come out of a necessity to have enough—and competent—staff to keep businesses open and be able to serve all potential customers.

“We have to speak to the Chambers of Commerce and provincial bodies to demonstrate what they’re missing out on with all of these able-bodied, smart people who maybe don’t master French. Anybody who doesn’t speak French might have the skills, we’ll just help them speak French. But in this climate of fear, it’s not a good look for the next 5, 10, 15 years for the economy of Quebec,” concluded Martin-Laforge.