Rules
Quebec Language Laws for Small Business Promotion: A Checklist
Quebec language laws small business promotion: the OQLF rules on French signage, ads and websites, plus the records that answer a complaint.
What to take away
- The Office quebecois de la langue francaise enforces the Charter of the French Language, and Quebec's promotion rules are provincial, not federal.
- French must lead on outdoor signage, in commercial advertising and on websites aimed at Quebec buyers.
- A federally registered trademark does not exempt the rest of a sign, flyer or web page from carrying French.
- Inspectors can order corrections, and the Charter treats each day an offence continues as a separate offence.
- Keep proofs, supplier contracts and trademark records, because that paper trail is what answers a complaint.
Who enforces Quebec's language rules
The Office quebecois de la langue francaise, usually shortened to the OQLF, administers the Charter of the French Language. Most people still call the statute Bill 101, and the full text is published on the federal justice site.
Nothing in those obligations comes from Ottawa. A business can hold a valid federal trademark and still fail a provincial signage inspection, because the two systems answer different questions. Trademark law decides who owns the mark. The Charter decides what a customer standing in Quebec sees.
Quebec employers with 25 or more staff must register with the OQLF within six months of reaching that headcount. The employer then files an analysis of its linguistic situation, typically within six months of registering.
A francization program with targets and dates follows, and progress reports come after that until the OQLF issues a francization certificate. Employers with 100 or more staff must also form a francization committee. Businesses below 25 employees stay out of that paperwork, but the signage and advertising rules apply at every size.
What a compliant sign or ad has to contain
For commercial signage, French must be markedly predominant. A shopper's eye should read French first, and a panel split evenly between two languages usually fails.
French Requirements by Touchpoint
Touchpoint
- Storefront fascia
- Markedly predominant
- Window posters
- French on every message
- Website
- French reachable as easily
- Invoices and order forms
- Available in French
- Quebec-targeted posts
- French included
French requirement
- Storefront fascia
- English trademark alone
- Window posters
- French kept inside store
- Website
- French behind small toggle
- Invoices and order forms
- English form, no French option
- Quebec-targeted posts
- One English caption reused
Frequent failure
- Storefront fascia
- Window posters
- Website
- Invoices and order forms
- Quebec-targeted posts
Where a trademark appears in another language, French has to sit beside it and still dominate. Order forms, invoices, receipts and catalogues count as commercial documents, and each needs a French version offered on the same terms.
The same logic reaches temporary panels. A sidewalk sign promotion is still commercial signage, so the French message leads and the English follows.
| Touchpoint | French requirement | Frequent failure |
|---|---|---|
| Storefront fascia | French leads the panel | English trademark alone on the panel |
| Window posters | French on every commercial message | French kept inside the store |
| Website | French reachable as easily as English | French hidden behind a small toggle |
| Invoices and order forms | Available in French | English form sent with no French option |
| Posts aimed at Quebec buyers | French included | One English caption reused in every province |
Every format answers the same test, from fascia letters to printed signage bolted onto a wall.
Records to keep and paperwork to expect
Language decisions sit inside the wider set of choices about how a business presents itself, the ground covered in Small Business Branding. What the OQLF asks for is narrower: evidence of what ran, where, and in which language.
OQLF Records Checklist
- Print proofs and sign proofs showing French
- Contracts with printers, sign makers, agencies
- Dated screenshots of French web pages
- Trademark registration certificates from CIPO
- French invoices, order forms, catalogue pages
Keep these records:
- Proofs of runsdated photos of installed signs, printer proofs, and screenshots of pages and posts aimed at Quebec buyers. Keep three years, which matches Quebec's general prescription period.
- Supplier contractsagreements with sign makers, printers and translators, plus the artwork files. Keep for the contract term plus six years, the period Revenu Quebec expects for business records.
- Trademark certificatesthe registration certificate and each renewal. A Canadian trademark runs ten years and renews every ten, so keep the file while the mark is in use.
- French document versionsthe French invoice, order form, catalogue and contract filed beside the English copy, on the same six-year floor.
- OQLF correspondencethe registration notice, the linguistic analysis, the francization program and inspection notices. Keep six years, and the francization certificate while the business operates.
Temporary formats such as A-frames, banners and window decals belong in the same folder.
What happens if you do not comply
An OQLF inspector can visit without an appointment, review signage and documents, and issue a notice with a deadline for correction. The Charter allows fines, and each day an offence continues counts as a separate offence. One complaint can start that clock.
The Charter sets the fine ranges. They depend on whether the offender is a person or a corporation and on whether the offence is a first or a repeat.
A first offence by a corporation typically falls between $3,000 and $30,000, and repeat offences run higher. Each day counts as a separate offence, so a month of non-compliance multiplies the total.
If the sign is already manufactured, the fix means a new run and a second installation.
Example: reading a sign the way an inspector would
Take a storefront panel where the registered trademark is an English word and the tagline underneath is in French. The tagline cannot be smaller than the English mark. If the two lines match in size, the sign fails the markedly predominant test and needs a redesign.
Where the rules differ by place
Quebec is the only province with a French-language commercial signage regime. New Brunswick guarantees bilingual services from government, not from shopfronts. Municipal bylaws layer on top.
Quebec City requires a heritage permit for a sign in the historic district and controls materials, size and illumination. Montreal issues signage permits through its boroughs, so a fascia change needs city approval as well as French that meets the Charter.
Provincial law governs the message, while choosing where to run it is a separate exercise, covered in Local Advertising. A promotional email sent across Canada also has to satisfy anti-spam consent rules, which the Government of Canada explains, whatever the sign outside says.
