Dieppe council has voted to push ahead with a new bylaw that would require all future commercial signs on the exterior of buildings in the southeastern New Brunswick city to be bilingual.

Under the new bylaw, the French version of the text on the signs will have to come before the English version.

That means the French would have to be either at the top of the sign, above the English text, or on the left of the sign with the English text on the right, council said.

The only groups that would be allowed to ask council for the right to put up French-only or English-only signs would be cultural or educational institutions, such as schools.

The new bylaw, which is expected to pass final reading by the end of the month, would also allow other languages on the signs.

Passed with no debate

Council was considering two options Monday night - to have all signs in French with an exemption for English cultural or educational facilities, or to have all bilingual signs with an exemption for English and French cultural and educational facilities.

Without any debate, the majority of councillors voted for the bilingual option.

Bilingual signs respect both French- and English-speaking citizens, said Coun. Dave Maltais. They also respect the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, he said.

Existing signs will not be affected by the new bylaw, said Mayor Jean LeBlanc.

"There is a grandfather clause," he said. "We wanted to make sure we didn't affect the [competitiveness] of our businesses, so there's no need to spend any money right now for anybody.

"But if you're going to put up a new sign, if you're going to modify your sign, then obviously, once this bylaw is enacted, those rules would follow, but it shouldn't change the amount of money they're going to spend on the sign, only what's asked of them as far as the content."

Issue dates back to 2008

Situated next to Moncton, Dieppe is the fastest growing francophone city in the province with a population of roughly 18,000. The two cities have become a retail hub for the Maritimes and even with that recent growth, the majority of commercial signs in Dieppe are still in English only.

New Brunswick is officially bilingual, but the province's language law does not cover the private sector. Any regulation over the language on signs in municipalities must come from the local government.

Municipalities are covered under the Official Languages Act, if they are designated as a city or have an official language minority that forms 20 per cent of the population. That would require, for instance, local bylaws to be published in both official languages, but it would not extend to commercial signs.

The debate about bilingual signs in Dieppe started back in November 2008, when resident Martin LeBlanc-Rioux began circulating a petition requesting a bylaw to force businesses to put up bilingual signs. About 4,000 people in the area signed the petition, which was submitted to council last year.

Eleven New Brunswick francophone organizations also joined together to pressure Dieppe council to proceed with a bilingual sign bylaw.

The mayor had hoped to persuade businesses to voluntarily switch to bilingual signs through education, but announced the proposed bylaw last November.

Some residents voiced opposition to the bylaw in January during a special meeting to discuss the reforms.