Shortly before the end of clause-by-clause consideration in committee, the Liberals tabled a series of amendments to their piece of legislation on Friday that represents a compromise with the Quebec government's request. All opposition parties voted in favour.

"These amendments demonstrate that the federal system can be equivalent to the Quebec system with respect to the use of French in business and that the two systems can co-exist in cooperation.These amendments demonstrate that the federal regime can be equivalent to Quebec's with respect to the use of French in business and that the two regimes can co-exist in cooperation," explained Marc Serré, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Official Languages, Ginette Petitpas-Taylor, in introducing the first amendment.

Quebec's Minister of the French Language, Jean-François Roberge, was delighted and called the outcome "a major step forward for the vitality of French in Quebec and Canada.

"It could hardly be better at this time," he summarized in an interview with The Canadian Press, where he confirmed that the amendments tabled by the Liberal government correspond "absolutely" to what the two levels of government negotiated.

According to Roberge, the language regimes of Quebec and Canada are now "very, very similar, almost mirror-like. Large parts of the Charter of the French Language have been "practically copied and pasted" into the Official Languages Act, he said.

In a written statement, Official Languages Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor said she has always had a "common objective" with Quebec to protect French and that Friday's amendments are proof of that.

"We have in our hands a robust bill that gives us the means to tackle the decline of French and support our official language minority communities, and we are eager to see this legislation become a reality," she wrote.

During the committee study, Conservative official languages critic Joel Godin explained that he understands that the Liberal amendments are the result of discussions between the federal and Quebec governments and that the government is not prepared to accept them.I want to share my joy that the Liberals have been able to come up with the amendments," said Godin, "and I'm very happy that they've done that.

"I want to share my joy that the Oppositions have done an extraordinary job to put pressure on the Government of Canada to force it to bend its knees a little," said Mr. Godin during the deliberations.

Opposition threat

In its initial version, section 54 of the bill, which enacts the Act respecting the use of the French language in private enterprises under federal jurisdiction, gave businesses a choice between the Official Languages Act and the Quebec Charter of the French Language.

The three opposition parties, which form a majority on the committee, had announced in recent months that they would support an amendment that would not give businesses that choice, thereby forcing the Trudeau government's hand.

"This is the moment that many people in Quebec have been waiting for," said Bloc Québécois official languages critic Mario Beaulieu when the time finally came to introduce the amendment.It's the moment many people in Quebec have been waiting for," said Bloc Québécois official languages critic Mario Beaulieu when the time finally came to introduce the amendment to apply the Charter of the French Language to businesses under federal jurisdiction.

"It is a very broad consensus in Quebec: the unions, the major cities, all the former prime ministers, including those who were for the Liberal Party supported it, he continued. (...) All the opposition parties said they would support it."

However, NDP official languages critic Niki Ashton did an about-face and voted against the Bloc amendment, explaining that she wants to "respect the collaboration and cooperation between two levels of government."

The Bloc is more or less happy with the outcome and does not know if it will vote for the bill in the House of Commons.

"It's a step in the right direction," said Mr. Beaulieu in a press scrum, who would have preferred, like "the vast majority of Quebecers," that his amendment be adopted.

But this pressure from the opposition was "a great help", insisted Minister Roberge, who refused to say whether the Quebec government was realistic in adopting the amendment.He declined to say whether the Quebec government was being realistic in the belief that it would be unlikely that the federal Parliament would ultimately agree to delegate powers to another jurisdiction.

When asked by reporters if the Liberals were feeling the heat, Liberal Marc Serré confirmed that "as a federal government, we did not want to give away jurisdiction over official languages. He also believes that the bill now has "a much better chance of passing in the Senate".

Niki Ashton sees this "historic unity" between the two levels of government as "a very strong message" that the bill should be "passed as quickly as possible".

The decisions announced in recent weeks by Air Canada and Canadian National Railway (CN) to voluntarily register with theQuebec government officials said on condition of anonymity.

This had the effect of "spreading the word," one of them told The Canadian Press, adding that he has been informed of a "domino effect" in the Liberal caucus.

So far, more than 90 per cent of the 400 companies under federal jurisdiction are now registered with the Office québécois de la langue française.

Source: www.lesoleil.com