Quebec film production compliance checklist (2026)

A Quebec shoot has four compliance layers: union collective agreements (AQTIS Local 514 IATSE for technicians, ARRQ for directors), federal PIPEDA privacy rules, Quebec's Law 25 (the strictest privacy law in Canada), and Bill 96 French-language requirements. This checklist covers what to verify in each layer before, during, and after production.

No single department owns all four layers, which is exactly why productions get caught out. Payroll watches the union rules, legal watches the contracts, and nobody watches the interactions between them until a grievance, an OQLF complaint, or a privacy incident forces the issue. Use this page as the master list.

The four layers at a glance

Union checklist: AQTIS, IATSE, and ARRQ

Collective agreement rules are specific, enforceable, and expensive to violate. The details vary by local, department, and production type, so confirm against the applicable agreement, but these are the provisions that generate most violations:

1. Turnaround. Verify every crew member gets the minimum rest between shifts, commonly 10 continuous hours. Check against actual wrap times, not scheduled ones; a shoot that wraps three hours late puts the next morning's call sheet in violation before anyone arrives. Violations typically trigger penalty pay at elevated rates until the full rest period has elapsed.
2. Meal breaks. The first meal must typically be called within six hours of crew call. Penalties accrue per half hour of delay, per crew member, so one late lunch on a 50-person crew costs thousands. Track the second meal window (commonly six hours after the first meal ends) on long days.
3. Daily and weekly overtime. Know the standard day for each agreement (commonly 8 or 10 hours), the first overtime tier (typically 1.5x), and the second threshold (often the 12th hour, at double time or higher). Watch cumulative weekly hours too; many agreements trigger overtime past 44 or 48 hours even when no single day did.
4. Consecutive days. Sixth consecutive days typically carry premium rates and a seventh day often pays double time for the entire day. This is per person, not per production: a technician working two of your overlapping shoots can hit day six without either schedule showing it.
5. Weekly rest. Most agreements require a weekly rest period, commonly 34 consecutive hours. Violations often trigger triple time until the rest is satisfied.
6. Directors. If your director works under an ARRQ agreement, confirm its specific terms separately; director agreements are negotiated apart from the technician agreements.

Our AQTIS and IATSE compliance guide covers these provisions in depth.

Privacy checklist: Law 25 and PIPEDA

Law 25 has been fully in effect since September 2024 and applies to any company operating, shooting, or processing personal information in Quebec. Administrative penalties can reach C$10 million or 2% of worldwide turnover, and penal fines C$25 million or 4%.

1. Designate a privacy officer and publish their name and contact information on your company website. By default the role falls to the person with the highest authority.
2. Run Privacy Impact Assessments before new projects involving personal information: new productions with contributor data, new production software, cloud dailies platforms, or AI-based casting and editing tools.
3. Assess every cross-border transfer. A PIA is required before personal information leaves Quebec, including sending footage or crew data to a US post house, VFX vendor, or cloud provider.
4. Unbundle consent. Law 25 requires consent per specific purpose. Performer releases and crew onboarding forms should itemize each use of personal information with separate consent, and sensitive information needs express consent.
5. Prepare breach procedures. Incidents posing a risk of serious injury must be reported to the CAI and affected individuals, and a register of all confidentiality incidents must be maintained. Under PIPEDA, breach records must be kept for 24 months and knowingly failing to report can cost up to $100,000 per affected individual.
6. Handle location filming correctly. Filming identifiable people is collection of personal information; there is no blanket public-space exemption. Post signage, avoid capturing non-consenting identifiable individuals, and get releases from anyone prominently featured.

The full privacy landscape, including Alberta and BC rules for multi-province shoots, is in our PIPEDA and Law 25 guide.

Language checklist: Bill 96

Bill 96 amended the Charter of the French Language in 2022, and its most significant provisions have been fully in effect since June 2025.

1. Count your employees. At 25 or more (most productions qualify once crew is counted), the company must register with the OQLF and undertake the Francisation process.
2. Make call sheets available in French. Bilingual distribution is the practical standard; the compliance failure mode is the French version lagging behind late-night English revisions.
3. Paper contracts in French. Employment contracts and deal memos must be available in French, and the French version prevails in a dispute.
4. Keep crew communications compliant. Daily production emails, schedule changes, safety briefings, and on-set signage are all covered. Safety briefings should be delivered in French and, where needed for comprehension, other languages.
5. Budget for enforcement risk. OQLF fines range from $3,000 to $30,000 for a first offence by an individual and $6,000 to $60,000 for businesses, rising for repeat violations.

Details and practical workflows are in our Bill 96 production guide.

Making the checklist operational

A checklist only works if something enforces it daily. The recurring theme across all four layers is that violations happen at the point of scheduling and distribution: the call sheet that ignores last night's late wrap, the English-only revision at 9:00 PM, the onboarding form that bundles consent.

That is the gap Orson was built for: AQTIS and IATSE rules checked at scheduling time, bilingual call sheets generated from one data source, and Law 25 consent and audit logging built into crew onboarding. If you want a compliance review of your current workflows, reach out through our contact page and we will scope it around the agreements and jurisdictions you operate under.

This checklist is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Collective agreements vary by local and negotiation cycle, and privacy and language requirements are subject to regulatory interpretation. Consult the applicable agreements and qualified legal counsel for guidance specific to your production.