MONTREAL — The Quebec government has published new rules requiring French to occupy most of the space on storefronts and outdoor commercial signs, part of a larger effort to protect the French language in the province.
New regulations published Wednesday say French has to be"markedly predominant" on public signs and commercial advertising, even where the business name is in English. In practice, that means stores like Canadian Tire, Best Buy and Second Cup will have to include generic terms or descriptions in French on their storefronts that take up twice as much space as the English brand name.
On Wednesday, several business groups warned that companies may struggle to implement the new rules by next June. Michel Rochette, Quebec president of the Retail Council of Canada, noted many municipalities have their own sign bylaws, and businesses only have 11 months left to navigate the various rules.
That could mean including a generic term like"clothing" on the storefront of a clothing store with an English name, perhaps alongside a slogan written in French. Guillaume Talbot-Lachance, a regulatory commercial lawyer in Montreal, said he hopes the government will provide more guidance to help small businesses follow the new rules."Very often people want to comply with the law. The problem is when they don't understand the law," he said.
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