What this is
If your company operates in Quebec, the province's language law places a set of operational obligations on how you serve customers, run your workplace, sign your premises, and label what you sell. Meeting them is an operations program to build and run, and the certificate that proves you are meeting them is issued by the Office quebecois de la langue francaise.
Provenance builds and runs the program that gets you there and keeps you there, in both languages, so you protect your Quebec revenue and stay eligible for Quebec contracts. We are not your lawyers and we do not issue the certificate. We sit beside your counsel and do the operational work: find the exposure, register you, build the francization program, and install the reporting discipline that keeps it current.
The three packages
The engagement lands as a wedge and expands. A fixed-fee diagnostic shows you exactly where you are exposed and what certificate-ready looks like. A scoped build gets you there. A retainer keeps you compliant as you add products, signage, and staff.
Francization Exposure Diagnostic
A fast, paid diagnostic that finds your vulnerabilities and shows you precisely where you are at risk and what a certificate-ready plan looks like.
- A threshold check against your Quebec headcount and your registration status.
- A full touchpoint audit across customer service, your website and e-commerce, signage and advertising, packaging and labelling, standard-form contracts, HR documents, and internal software.
- A risk-rated Exposure and Readiness Report that ranks what to fix first.
- A prioritized roadmap to certificate-ready, with owners and dates.
Francization Program Build
We build the program the diagnostic calls for and stand up the discipline that runs it.
- Registration with the OQLF, or fixing a late one, and the linguistic-situation analysis.
- The francization program itself: the localization plan, signage remediation, bilingual contract templates, HR-document rewrites, and French sourcing and configuration for workplace software.
- The francization committee and reporting cadence stood up where required.
Compliance Maintained
The certificate is earned once and kept continuously. A retainer keeps your file current and your eligibility intact.
- The periodic reports filed on time.
- Your government-eligibility file kept current, so you keep qualifying for Quebec contracts.
- New products, signage, and hires monitored, so a gap never reopens quietly.
Who it's for
This is built for companies that want the outcome, register on time, build the program, earn and keep the certificate, without turning it into a standing distraction.
- Quebec firms newly in scope that have no in-house compliance capacity and need a program built quickly.
- Out-of-province and national companies with a Quebec office, sales team, or e-commerce presence, often caught off guard by obligations they did not know applied to them.
- Any company that wants Quebec government contracts, where the certificate is a hard gate.
- Consumer-facing brands with signage and packaging exposure, a visible and scopeable project.
How we work, and what we issue
Law firms tell you what the law says. We build and run the operational program that makes you compliant and keeps you there. Your bilingual, former-auditor, Lean-trained partner does the audit, the registration, the program, and the reporting, and coordinates with your counsel rather than competing with it.
The OQLF issues the certificate, not us. What we issue is a private Francization Readiness assessment, and we help you earn the OQLF certificate and keep it.
Who leads it
Benjamin Kobe
Benjamin Kobe, founder of Provenance Advisory Group. Natively bilingual, a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, and a former Canada Revenue Agency auditor, he built his career on process auditing and the discipline of evidence. That profile, bilingual, former auditor, and Lean-trained, is rare in this exact seam between law and operations, which is where this work lives.
Common questions
Is this legal advice?
No. This is an operations engagement. We find your exposure, register you, build the francization program, and run the reporting. Your legal counsel advises on the law; we do the operational work beside them.
Do you issue the certificate?
No. The Office quebecois de la langue francaise issues it. We issue a private Francization Readiness assessment and build the program that gets you certificate-ready and keeps you there.
We are based outside Quebec. Does this apply to us?
If you have a Quebec office, sales team, or e-commerce presence, the province's obligations can reach your operation there. The diagnostic tells you precisely where you stand.
What does the diagnostic cover?
Your headcount threshold and registration status, and a full touchpoint audit: customer service, website and e-commerce, signage and advertising, packaging and labelling, standard-form contracts, HR documents, and internal software.
Why start with a diagnostic instead of the full program?
Because it is the fastest, lowest-risk way to see your real exposure and cost the work honestly. It delivers value on its own and builds the case for the program. You decide what comes next.
Can you deliver in French?
Yes. The work is delivered in French, English, or both, by a natively bilingual practitioner.
Who leads the work?
Benjamin Kobe, a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and former federal auditor, natively bilingual. See below.
Request a diagnostic or ask a question
Tell me a little about your Quebec operation and I will be in touch. No obligation.
Thank you, I'll be in touch shortly.
Your message has reached me directly. I read every one myself and I'll reply within a business day.
Also for public bodies: official-languages readiness
If you are a municipality, a provincial body, or a health or community organization with a duty to serve the public in French, the equivalent operational work is active-offer readiness. There is a dedicated engagement for it.