This should be filed away under: WTF?

So, I am in Montreal, again, and I had a WTF moment. This WTF moment was far greater than the one where I noticed that the upscale, hip, chic, and trendy street in Montreal was line with nudy bars. What is this awe inspiring thing that has cause the great WTF moment: the policy of Frechification in Quebec.

The proper question would be: what the hell is “Frechification”? Well, here is the answer: Quebec requires that all aspects of businesses in Quebec operate in French. Now, granted, if you walk into a restaurant, shop, movie theater, or most business and speak English, the transaction(s) will happen in English. But the menu’s, price tags, movie listing, etc will be in French first, English second. I get this, and it really isn’t that big of a deal; but here’s where it gets absurd – if a company has an office in Quebec all of its documents must be in French (at least the ones dealing the Quebec government), and all of the computers must have their operating system, and programs, in French. How screwed up is that, not a “the best language for purpose of doing business”, or a “whatever language the primary user of the computer speaks”, but it has to be the French language for the sake of keeping Quebec French.

I, for the life of me, can’t figure out how a Quebec based business makes money. The 13% sales tax (Federal and Quebec tax together) and this ridiculous requirement to conduct ones business in French would seem to make the cost of doing business so high that anyone from Toronto, New York, or Vermont would be able to supply the services at a much cheaper rate.

Whatever, soon I’ll be back home in Indy.

Later,

B