Bill 96 (Loi 14) Compliance Posture

Bill 96 amends the Charter of the French language to make French the language of business in Quebec — including the language in which goods and services are offered to consumers. For phone-based customer service, that means a Quebec consumer must be able to be served in French from the very first interaction, without having to ask.

The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) enforces the Charter. Operators serving Quebec residents are responsible for compliance; Kolekt's role is to make compliance the default behaviour of the voice + messaging stack rather than something operators have to bolt on.

Four pieces of the platform line up directly with Bill 96 expectations:

• French-first detection — the voice agent is configured multilingually (EN + Quebec French + Spanish) and detects the caller's language within the first utterance. Quebec callers who open in French are served in French immediately; no "press 2 for French" gate.
• Mid-call language switching — if the caller switches mid-conversation, the agent follows. The final language used in the call is captured and stored on the call record so downstream messages stay in the same language.
• French-language follow-ups — SMS and email follow-ups to Quebec callers are drafted in French (Quebec idiom) using the caller's detected language. The operator receives their own alert in the language of their tenant default, so French-speaking operators stay in French throughout.
• Quebec French voice model — the synthesized voice is calibrated for Quebec French (joual-aware) rather than Parisian French, so callers hear a regional voice that matches their expectation.

Bill 96 places the compliance obligation on the operator (the business serving the Quebec consumer), not on Kolekt. Operators are responsible for: identifying which of their phone numbers serve Quebec callers; configuring the voice agent's language pool to include Quebec French for those numbers; and ensuring any human escalation path can also serve callers in French.

Kolekt provides the technical surface. Operators retain ultimate responsibility for the legal posture of their own service to Quebec consumers and should consult Quebec counsel for jurisdiction-specific obligations beyond the platform defaults.

For audit purposes, every call captures the language ElevenLabs detected (or the final language at end-of-call when the caller switched). The detected language is stored on the call record and propagated to the lead, so any later operator review can confirm that French-speaking Quebec callers received French service.

A Quebec caller can ask to be served in French at any point during a call. Kolekt's multilingual voice agent honours the request immediately by switching language; if the caller specifically requests a French-speaking human, the platform routes the call per the operator's escalation configuration.

This posture page is reviewed by Quebec counsel before each major release that touches voice or messaging behaviour. The "Last reviewed" date at the top of the page tracks that pass; material changes between reviews are flagged in the platform changelog.

Operators are notified of material changes to this posture by email; the updated text is effective on the next call after the operator confirms.