French on commercial posters: “Long live Quebec and our language police!”

The government's announcement that French will dominate storefronts will not be enough to reverse the language's decline in Quebec, committee members said. Analysts' arguments.

• Read also: 'A matter of respect': Two-thirds of every company's signage must be in French as of June 2025

The French language should appear mainly on storefronts in the province within a year, in June 2025.

Luc Lavoie and Gaetan Barrett are not convinced by this measure.

“I want to say ‘A’ for effort, but will the result be there?” asks Mr. Barrett. “It is certain that it is not only through this that France will stop its decline.”

He admits, however, that the project director, French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge, made “good efforts.”

Screenshot / VAT News / QMI Agency

The main challenge in trade remains the difficulty of providing service in the French language in the capital, according to him.

For Luc Lavoie, this new regulation isn't really necessary. “Suppose we take the same thing [le gouvernement] We've just applied and applied this to Paris, and it's going to be an absolute crisis! […] “Everything is written in English on the labels, it’s a global trend.”

One committee member explains that if the “Heart of Francophonie” decides to keep businesses with signs in English, Quebec should do the same.

“Will Ubisoft become ‘Ubidoux’? Will Northvolt become ‘La volte du Nord’?” Mr. Barrett adds, to laughter from his colleagues.

“At some point, we have to stop making fools of ourselves,” Luc Lavoie says. Long live Quebec and our language police!

The two analysts stress that providing service in English remains unacceptable and that they do not “tolerate” it.

Watch the full clip there Duel analysts In the video above.