Mystery shoppers contracted by the Commissioner of Official Languages will be rating downtown Ottawa merchants starting Wednesday.

The goal is to help make the capital a hot spot for French-speaking tourists.

But many merchants CBC News spoke to Monday were not big fans of the impromptu French test some are set to receive.

Olenka Stepchuk, who owns Lida Boutique clothing store in the Byward Market and speaks French, says mystery shoppers testing her French skills is deceitful. ((CBC))

Olenka Stepchuk, who speaks French, said the shoppers would take up her time while paying customers will lose their patience and leave.

"Coming in secretly to pretend to shop, and then leaving and writing a report on you about whether you can speak French or not is a little deceiving," said Stepchuk, who owns the Lida boutique clothing store in the Byward Market.

"I think there are different ways they can do it."

But Francophone tourists told CBC News the idea makes sense and is only fair.

Ottawa is a bilingual town, they said, they learn to speak both English and French and store employees should do the same.

"It's an official language in Canada and Ottawa is the capital, so it's important that in the capital you can get both languages," said tourist Julia Pesante.

The Language commissioner Graham Fraser declined an interview Monday.

But a spokesperson told CBC News the information collected for the study will help a report on how downtown businesses accommodate French-language speakers.

That report is to be released in October.