Sherbrooke, Que., to decide on the future of Lennoxville's bilingual status

The borough of Lennoxville in Sherbrooke, Que., will have to pass a resolution if it wants to keep providing its anglophone community services in English.

Under Bill 96, which was passed earlier this year, a city or borough can lose its bilingual status if less than half of its residents have English as their mother tongue.

Lennoxville, which has historically been bilingual, fell just short of the mark with new census data showing only 44.5 per cent of its residents are anglophones, making it vulnerable to the new law.

This week, it received a notice from the Office québécois de la langue française saying it no longer meets the requirements to maintain its bilingual status.

But a city or borough can maintain that status, if it chooses to.

"At this point the uncertainty of Lennoxville's (status) is not a case, it's just a procedure," Lennoxville borough president Claude Charron told CBC Radio's Breakaway.

"We pass a resolution, we transfer that to l'Office de langue française and they keep it. So we haven't lost it, it's just we have to pronounce ourselves with a resolution to Quebec."

The resolution has to be passed by the city of Sherbrooke within 120 days, which Charron says isn't up for debate, as the anglophone community is well-respected.

'Side effect of the law'

Sherbrooke Mayor Évelyne Beaudin said she saw this coming when Bill 96 became law.

"We must protect the bilingual status, because these are essential services that we offer as a municipality, and everyone should be able to obtain them adequately," she said.

"There are many seniors, in particular, who have not had the chance to learn French."

Lennoxville's bilingual status gives local residents and businesses several advantages as the city has an obligation to communicate in both languages and has a budget for bilingualism.

It's also convenient for business owners like Lily Martin, who says half the customers who come to her store, Les 3 fées, are anglophone.

"I have a lot of products that are not made in Quebec, that are made elsewhere in Canada, so that are not translated into French," she said. "The bilingual status allows me to offer more products."

Those currently sitting on Sherbrooke's council are in agreement but, with every new census, a new resolution will have to be passed, so English in Lennoxville could be vulnerable in the long run.

"The aim of Bill 96 is to protect the French language but that's mostly in Montreal," said Charron. "Here we definitely don't have those problems so we end up getting the negative side effects of the law."

"That's a bit annoying."