Pointe-Claire wants to keep its status as a bilingual city

At the September city council meeting, Pointe-Claire Mayor Tim Thomas and council members passed a resolution asking the Government of Quebec to maintain bilingual city status for their municipality.

“Our status as a bilingual city is one of the foundations of our community and contributes to the wealth, culture and social life of our population. It is part of the vision of the municipal council and the administration to be an ever more inclusive community,” said Mayor Thomas.

Still according to him, “it is essential for Pointe-Claire to offer services in both French and English to guarantee the quality and ease of communication”.

The recently released results of the 2021 Census confirm that 47.3% of Pointe-Claire residents are native English speakers. With the adoption of Bill 96, which modifies the Charter of the French language, a municipality is recognized as bilingual when more than half of its population is of English mother tongue.

At the time of adopting this resolution, no notice from the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) had been received by the City informing it of the withdrawal of its recognition as a bilingual city. In the event of such a situation, the municipal council will have 120 days from the date of receipt of the notice to adopt a resolution in order to maintain recognition as a bilingual city.