{"id":5930,"date":"2021-06-17T09:45:36","date_gmt":"2023-08-12T08:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/bill-96-something-new-or-deja-vu\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T12:55:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:55:34","slug":"bill-96-something-new-or-deja-vu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/financial-services\/bill-96-something-new-or-deja-vu\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill 96: Something new or d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On May 13, 2021, <a href=\"http:\/\/assnat.qc.ca\/en\/travaux-parlementaires\/projets-loi\/projet-loi-96-42-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bill 96: <em>An Act Respecting French, The Official and Common Language of Qu\u00e9bec<\/em><\/a> (the \u201c<strong>Bill<\/strong>\u201d) was tabled by the Qu\u00e9bec government. This Bill aims to provide for stricter protections of the French language within the <em>Charter of the French Language<\/em> (the \u201c<strong>Charter<\/strong>\u201d) and several other provincial laws. However, we are comforted that the current practices in the industry, including the preparation of loan and security documents, remain largely unchanged by the Bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Section 55 of the Charter: Standard-form contracts and standard clauses<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Bill requires that standard-form \u201ccontracts of adhesion\u201d be drafted and presented only in French to a contracting or credit party for examination under the amended s. 55 of the Charter. Only after having done so in respect of such \u201ccontracts of adhesion\u201d, will the contracting or credit party be able to be bound by such a contract in English provided further that it is expressly requested and chosen as the \u201cchoice of language\u201d in the contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This change will only affect contracts relating or applying to consumers. Therefore, the \u201cchoice of language\u201d provision will still be sufficient to allow a negotiated form of contract, such as loan and security documents, to be drafted in English and no corresponding French version will be required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Section 21 of the Charter: Contracts with the civil administration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The amendments to s. 21 of the Charter will require that all contracts entered into by the \u201ccivil administration\u201d be necessarily and <strong>exclusively <\/strong>drafted in French. The civil administration refers to the government and its various bodies, municipal and school entities and health and social services entities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although this proposed change appears to be a departure from current practice, the current exception for contracts entered into \u201coutside Qu\u00e9bec\u201d with the civil administration would be reinserted as s.21.5 of the Charter and therefore will still apply. In other words, if the civil administration were to enter into a contract with a party outside Qu\u00e9bec, the contract and its corresponding documents and communications may be <strong>exclusively<\/strong> drafted in English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Contracts \u201coutside Qu\u00e9bec\u201d has been interpreted under the <em>Civil Code of Qu<\/em><em>\u00e9<\/em><em>bec <\/em>to mean contracts entered into\/concluded in another province or jurisdiction other than Qu\u00e9bec. Therefore it seems that contracts entered into outside of Qu\u00e9bec may be drawn up in English and so the applicable agreement should include a clause clearly stating that the parties have signed and entered into the contract outside of Qu\u00e9bec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moreover, the Bill seeks to add another, more general exception to the exclusive French requirement. Loan contracts, financial instruments and contracts whose object is the management of financial risks, including currency exchange or interest rate exchange agreements, contracts for the purchase or sale of options, or futures contracts will all be permitted to be drafted in English as well as French.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Takeaway<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the modifications pursued by the Qu\u00e9bec government, current practice within the financial services industry will be largely unaffected upon adoption of the Bill in its current state. Since the Bill has not been passed into law, the proposed amendments therein are still subject to change. Accordingly, Miller Thomson will continue to monitor the Bill as it navigates the legislative process and keep our clientele abreast of any further amendments and their potential impacts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On May 13, 2021, Bill 96: An Act Respecting French, The Official and Common Language of Qu\u00e9bec (the \u201cBill\u201d) was tabled by the Qu\u00e9bec government. This Bill aims to provide for stricter protections of the French language within the Charter of the French Language (the \u201cCharter\u201d) and several other provincial laws. However, we are comforted [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":14357,"parent":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[554],"insight-format":[416],"class_list":["post-5930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-financial-services"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bill 96: Something new or d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu? | Miller Thomson<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/financial-services\/bill-96-something-new-or-deja-vu\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bill 96: Something new or d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu? | Miller Thomson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On May 13, 2021, Bill 96: An Act Respecting French, The Official and Common Language of Qu\u00e9bec (the \u201cBill\u201d) was tabled by the Qu\u00e9bec government. This Bill aims to provide for stricter protections of the French language within the Charter of the French Language (the \u201cCharter\u201d) and several other provincial laws. 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