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A new law in Quebec has significant implications for companies offering share plans to employees or other service providers in Quebec. Specifically, the Act respecting French, the Official and Common Language of Québec ("Bill 96") introduced new provisions into the Charter of the French Language and requires that certain additional communications to individuals in Quebec be provided in French.
In the context of share plans, there are two aspects to consider:
Any documents that are related to conditions of employment must be provided in French
Any contract of adhesion must be provided in French
Under either position above, the French language version of these documents will be the controlling legal documents under the new law, unless the employee chooses to make the English version the controlling version. Key takeaways There are a number of decisions and actions companies offering share plans in Quebec will need to take to comply with the new language requirements, including obtaining and distributing translations, managing/enrollment acceptance procedures in light of the new requirements, and ensuring that share plan documents distributed in Quebec no longer include a language "waiver" provision which many companies had included in the past to deal with prior French language requirements. As is often the case with new legislation, there may be clarifications on the new requirements over the coming months. For more information If you have not already done so, please reach out to your Compensation attorney to determine the impact this development has on your company’s share plans and the best approach for your company.
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