Thank you very much.
It is a pleasure to be with you today to speak about some aspects of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec. This opportunity to discuss the agency's initiatives and budgetary situation allows us to highlight some aspects and look into our future.
Allow me to introduce the officials who are with me today. First, Thao Pham, Vice-President, Operations and Luce Perreault, Director General, Departmental Finance.
I hope my appearance here will enlighten you on the agency's program and on the supplementary funding requested from Parliament for the new Community Infrastructure Improvement Fund (CIIF) mentioned in the 2012 Budget Speech.
Allow me to introduce the public servants—
That's already done.
Permit me, by way of introduction, to give you a brief outline of the agency's role.
The agency's mission is to promote the long-term economic development of the regions of Quebec by giving special attention to those where slow economic growth is prevalent or opportunities for productive employment is inadequate.
In carrying out this mission, the agency works to foster cooperation and complementarity with Quebec and its communities. The agency aims to be the key federal partner in the regional economic development of Quebec so that the province's regions and businesses can participate to the fullest of their potential in the economy of tomorrow by building on their assets.
We provide direct support to Quebec's small and medium-sized enterprises and to economic development players and organizations by offering them guidance and financial assistance.
Our activities are centred on the government's priorities, namely the economy, prosperity and employment and, more specifically, on entrepreneurship, business productivity, export, and innovation through technology transfer.
Allow me to remind you, Mr. Chairman, of the government's commitment to a more effective and efficient federal public service.
The agency, like all departments, is contributing to the government-wide effort to reduce spending and restore a balanced budget. By focusing on the government's priorities, Quebec's economic realities, and the results of its own 2010 strategic review, the agency has also set out along the path of transformation to become more efficient and offer better service to its clients.
The agency is helping to achieve a balanced budget by simplifying its programs and accountability for clients, reducing processing delays and administrative paperwork, and reorganizing its internal departments for greater efficiency.
These measures will now make it easier to implement our programs, provide clear and adequate accounting of our actions, and communicate the outcomes achieved.
The agency's intervention priorities are established on the basis of governmental priorities, the concrete economic spinoffs generated by projects, and the agency's budgetary capacity.
The agency maintains a presence on the ground through its 12 business offices and remains the Government of Canada's principal economic representative in Quebec. Its advisors work alongside Quebec promoters to support them in their projects.
It will also be recalled that, in 2010, our government announced a renewal of the funding allocation for the CFP-Community Futures Program. Through this program, the agency provides financial assistance to 66 local and regional development organizations, including 56 SADCs (Sociétés d'aide au développement des collectivités) and 10 CAEs (Centres d'aide aux entreprises). This program supports local economic development and builds the capacity of communities to reach their full potential in a sustainable way. This national program supports and complements the efforts of our 12 business offices to better promote the economic development of Quebec's regions.
As part of its transformation to become more efficient and to simplify its action for clients, since April 1, 2012, the agency has been offering a single core program, the Quebec economic development program.
This program is adapted to the economic challenges of the regions and makes it possible to support businesses and communities all across Quebec.
More specifically, it allows the agency to further the development of enterprises by sustaining entrepreneurship and supporting business performance.
It is to that end that the agency, for example, recently granted a financial contribution to Soucy Rivalair for the acquisition of two high-technology machining centres. This family-run business in Drummondville has been in operation for many years and is very successful. It was first managed by the father, then by the children. The daughter is now the CEO.
Soucy Rivalair is a metal processor operating in the industrial and recreational transport sectors. This new equipment will enable the company to become more competitive, diversify its activities, and meet the requirements of major contractors. With its newly-developed expertise, Soucy Rivalair will now be in a better position to stand up to the Asian competition that has been severely affecting it in recent years.
It might interest some of my colleagues to know that the Groupe Soucy manufactures pucks for the National Hockey League, among other things. They are made in one of its companies in the Saint-Jérôme area. I have had the pleasure of visiting the factory. I know not a lot of National Hockey League pucks are flying around rinks at the moment. But still, they are made by Groupe Soucy.
The agency also intends to encourage mobilization and investment to support the economic development of the regions.
Indeed, the agency renewed its financial agreements with Quebec's regional and sectoral tourist associations—the ATRs and ATSs—up to March 31, 2015.
The funding provided to these organizations will allow them to put forward strategies to promote and commercialize regional attractions in the goal of drawing more tourists from out-of-province and international markets. We know that tourism is a now an important economic feature and a contributor to economic diversification in the regions of Quebec.
Lastly, through the targeted ad hoc initiatives it is regularly called upon to implement, the agency is able to provide temporary economic support to Quebec communities faced with particular challenges in order to help them stabilize and reinforce their economy.
One such example is the Temporary Initiative for the Strengthening of Quebec's Forest Economies, which, since April 2010, has allowed 236 projects to be carried out in communities struggling with the crisis in the forest sector.
This initiative has allowed regional county municipalities affected by the crisis to invest considerable sums in the diversification of their economies. By November 22 of this year, CED had contributed almost $87 million through the measure to projects that generated a total investment of more than $296 million.
There is also the Initiative for International Cruise Development launched in 2008, which will help 52 projects come to fruition to support the development of this industry in Quebec. These projects represent a total investment of over $115 million, toward which the agency contributed more than $41 million.
The initiative aimed to support international cruise development on the St. Lawrence and Saguenay rivers and help communities increase their capacity to attract and retain tourists from outside Quebec.
The results have been very conclusive, with the annual number of cruise passengers rising from about 150,000 in 2006 to over 195,000 in 2011. And based on the cruises confirmed for 2012, that number will reach more than 360,000 this year, more than a 200% increase since the initiative started. It is therefore fair to say that the objectives set in 2008 have been met.
Mr. Chairman, on top of its regular program, the QEDP, the agency also delivers national programs. CED also works in close collaboration with the Government of Quebec in delivering various infrastructure programs. In the last federal budget, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced the creation of the community infrastructure improvement fund, a measure under Canada's economic action plan.
The Community Infrastructure Improvement Fund is armed with a national budget of $150 million over two years, $31.2 million of which has been earmarked for projects in Quebec. Our agency is responsible for administering this program in the province.
A first call for proposals under this new program closed on October 1, and a second one will be launched in February 2013. The unqualified success of this first call for proposals illustrates the very real need that exists for community infrastructure.
It is that need we are asking you to support today by adopting the agency's supplementary estimates (B).
Mr. Chairman, the agency I oversee has its ears tuned to the needs of promoters and partners in all corners of Quebec in order to promote the economic growth of the regions.
It has the capacity not only to support the economy of tomorrow but to intervene rapidly in times of crisis.
The agency has demonstrated its know-how with the implementation of Canada's Economic Action Plan (EAP), the strategy put in place in the last few years to limit the impact of the global economic crisis on Canadians. The initiatives have brought concrete results, and Quebec has weathered the crisis particularly well.
Permit me now, Mr. Chair, to give you an overview of the agency's performance in providing support to businesses and regions in the last five years.
First, the agency contributed to the renewal of Quebec's pool of enterprises and to the increased competitiveness of existing businesses.
Here are some of the concrete outcomes: between our government's arrival on February 7, 2006, and September 30, 2012, the agency has supported nearly 4,000 projects of SMEs and organizations by providing a total of $1.9 billion in assistance.
For example, the agency granted a contribution to Embrionix Design, a Laval company that has developed an innovative product for the video broadcast industry. Its devices are used by major broadcasters to convert electric transmission signals to digital video signals. Financial support from the agency enabled the enterprise to launch a structured marketing plan on the east and west coasts of the United States and in Europe.
Metal 7, a Côte Nord company that offers thermal coating services, makes industrial burners and does fabrication for the mining industry, also received financial support from the agency. That contribution allowed the enterprise to expand its existing plant and purchase new equipment to raise its production capacity. The project was part of a large-scale investment plan to strengthen Metal 7's ability to meet the requirements of Quebec's major contractors and better integrate their value chains.
CED' s approach is tailored to the challenges that businesses and regions are facing and is aimed at capitalizing on their assets so they can fully participate in the economy.
Moreover, the agency's contributions have been shown to provide significant financial leverage. In 2011-2012, for example, this leverage effect generated, on average, $2.33 of investment from promoters and other funding sources for every $1 invested by the agency.
As you can see, Mr. Chairman, we are consistently working to make our communities more vigorous and our businesses more competitive.
In the coming years, Quebec's regions, communities, and enterprises will be confronted with a demanding context brought on largely by slowing global economic growth, the consequences of globalization, and heightened competition, particularly from emerging countries.
It is within that context that the agency will pursue its efforts to support businesses that are striving to improve their productivity and to develop new markets here in Canada and abroad in order to commercialize their products, many of them innovative.
The agency will continue to promote the economic development of Quebec's regions and businesses through its assistance to SMEs and the organizations that support them.
Over the next few years, the Government of Canada will continue to give priority to the economy and employment. The agency, in keeping with this mission, will continue to promote the economic growth of Quebec's regions by adjusting to the realities, issues, and challenges facing the province's communities and SMEs.
The agency will continue to work in conjunction and in close collaboration with key economic development partners, including other federal departments, the Government of Quebec and the principal stakeholders in the regions
The agency will continue to build on the government's efforts to cut the deficit by pursuing the transformation work already well under way to simplify its programs and accountability and to reduce administrative paperwork and processing.
And lastly, with your support, we will be able to pursue implementation of the Community Infrastructure Improvement Fund, which, as I have already mentioned, is answering a real need in our communities.
I thank you for your attention.
I'd be happy to answer your questions.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
