That, combined with the company’s own French-Canadian origins and its foothold in the capital of a bilingual country, puts the language demand higher up the list than for most employers.

In Quebec, the proportion of bilingual English-French individuals rose to 46.4 per cent, from 44.5 in 2016. Gatineau, Montreal and Quebec City had by far the highest rates of bilingualism in Canada.

Bilingual status allows a municipality to use both French and English in their written and oral communications as well as on their signage. The process of revoking or renewing status is to take ...