Young Quebecers care less than older people about being served in English: survey

A business in Montreal's Gay Village includes text in both languages. (Daniel J. Rowe/CTV News)

A survey conducted for Quebec's language watchdog has found that young Quebecers are far less concerned than older residents about not being served in French.

In a report published Tuesday, the Office québécois de la langue française said 41 per cent of customers between the ages of 18 and 34 reported feeling "indifferent" to being served at a business in a language other than French.

That number drops to about 30 per cent for Quebecers aged 35 and older.

As a whole, one-third of Quebecers reported feeling indifferent when not getting served in French, with respondents in Montreal and Gatineau the least bothered and respondents in Quebec City more likely to react negatively.

The 2023 survey found that about 70 per cent of respondents in Quebec were always greeted and served in French in the six months leading up to the survey in 2023. At the same time, the survey indicated about 78 per cent of respondents across Quebec preferred to be served in French, 14 per cent had no preference and eight per cent preferred to be served in English.

Still, about 46 per cent of all Quebecers said they would return to a store after receiving service in a language other than French because it did not bother them. That number rises to just over half of respondents in Montreal.

“In the Montréal (Census Metropolitan Area), where it is possible to track changes in client perception and behaviour between 2010 and 2023, the proportion of clients experiencing negative feelings when they are greeted or served in a language other than French is declining,” the report reads.

The OQLF says the gap between the proportion of Quebecers who want service in French and who receive it suggests that language law provisions requiring service to be available in French are not being respected.

However, it questioned whether the public has become so accustomed to service in English that some customers are less likely to object when they are not served in French: "Is this experience, previously less frequent and seen more negatively, now becoming more unremarkable?" the authors ask.

The watchdog also said language preferences when shopping in stores appears to have shifted over the years in Montreal. The survey showed that the proportion of customers who preferred to be served in French dropped on the Island of Montreal and surrounding suburbs to 67.8 per cent in 2023 from 74.3 per cent in 2010.

More than 3,800 respondents from Montreal, Quebec City, Sherbrooke and other regions of the province responded to the telephone survey conducted by Segma Recherche between Nov. 7, 2023, and Dec. 15, 2023.

The report was published a day before Quebec's Commissioner of the French Language released a report with recommendations to stop what he called a decline in the use of French.

"The demographic, economic and technological changes in recent decades have caused the use of French to decline in several areas of social life, first and foremost in work and culture. What's more, the gaps now visible between younger and older generations suggest further declines in the years to come," Benoît Dubreuil said in a news release.

The recommendations include requiring digital platforms and schools to promote French-language content as well as facilitating the use of French in organizations offering services outside the province.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2024.

— With files from Pierre Saint-Arnaud