Thank you for the question.
I'll pick up on the last point in the question, which I also addressed in the opening remarks. In particular, the advice from Mr. Lord, in terms of establishing the road map, was that the economic development activities under the strategy be driven by community needs and be well informed by local needs based on working closely with the communities. I think that's, in part, the key to how the economic development initiative has turned out. Each of the agencies has an existing field staff network and infrastructure to deliver economic development programming. They have then been brought in much closer contact with the official language minority communities in their own jurisdictions. This has been a great success, and we see it through our direct role in it, since FedNor, as part of Industry Canada, is directly involved.
We have projects through the economic development initiative in each of the 32 francophone minority communities in northern Ontario. The reach is there, and the level of consultation by the agencies and us nationally has been very rich. I think this part of the initiative has been key, in terms of orienting the economic development activities to the local level, in developing a close understanding of what those needs are so that they can develop projects that really meet those needs. Again, those are the springboard projects that often lead us to do other initiatives, through our regular programming, through regional agencies. So there's a leverage effect of the economic development initiative financing with the other financing that regional agencies already have available. That's been quite important in the road map.
In terms of the future of the initiative, again, we'll work on the evaluations that are under way. We've recently received the evaluation of the FedNor part, and it was quite positive in its report on the impact and efficiency of the program delivery. We will see the total of all the agency evaluations and will put those together in an overall package for Canadian Heritage. I think the evidence will guide which options on the future of the initiative will be put before ministers for their consideration.
We also undertake consultation. National consultations, this fall, are being considered to engage with communities on the future of the initiative to ensure that their interests and needs are well understood by the federal players who will have a role in influencing the future direction.
In terms of our personal view, obviously we'll work with our respective ministers to advise them on what evidence we have on the success of the program. We will bring together the economic analysis we have put together through the national research program. That will inform the future direction of the initiative.