During the regular meeting of September 6, members of the Pointe-Claire City Council adopted a resolution asking the Québec government to retain Pointe-Claire’s status as a bilingual city.
“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 people. It is part of the vision of the City Council and the administration to be an ever more inclusive community. It is essential to continue to offer services in both French and English to guarantee the quality and ease of exchanges,” said Mayor Tim Thomas.
The recently published results of the 2021 Census confirm that 47.3% of Pointe-Claire citizens are native English speakers. With the adoption of Bill 96, which amends the Charter of the French Language, a municipality is recognized as bilingual when more than half of its population has English as a mother tongue.
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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 the recognition as a bilingual city.
Source:City of Pointe-Claire
