Report

Updated Cost Estimate for An Act for the Substantive Equality of Canada's Official Languages

Oct 13, 2026

This report presents an updated cost estimate for An Act for the Substantive Equality of Canada's Official Languages and its associated regulations.

Highlights

The estimated fiscal cost to the federal government of implementing the *Use of French in Federally Regulated Private Business Act* (UFPBA) is $50.2 million over the 5-year period from 2027-28 to 2031-32. This primarily reflects additional full-time equivalents needed at the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada to handle the anticipated increased volume of complaints.
The UFPBA is estimated to impose $81.9 million in private-sector compliance costs over the same 5-year period. The costs are largely attributable to language training requirements for employees of federally regulated private businesses (FRPB), as well as some costs for translation and new signage in French.
Language training represents the largest component of private-sector compliance costs, totalling $61.9 million over 5 years. This includes $41.6 million in regions with a strong francophone presence and $20.3 million in Quebec, reflecting a lower number of employees requiring training in that province given the existence of the *Charter of the French Language* (CFL).
PBO's private-sector cost estimate is lower than costs forecast in the government's Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement, mainly because the PBO estimate identifies a smaller population of FRPBs as being subject to the UFPBA and assumes a higher proportion of FRPBs in Quebec already comply with the province’s CFL regime, based on more recent data.