Official Languages committee  It's large foreign companies. I'm referring to a document prepared by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. We also carried out a project to validate those figures in various regions and provinces. According to the estimates, by 2020, 20,000 businesses will change hands, but half of them will find no takers.

Official Languages committee  I'd also like to add, in connection with what Mr. Lauzon said a little earlier, that with strictly as small a budget as that cited for the cooperative development initiative, 1,677 cooperatives have been supported with consulting services; 131 of them were created and 701 others were reinforced.

Official Languages committee  It may be difficult to attribute success stories that we could tell you about to the Roadmap. We can't necessarily link to the Roadmap the funding allocated to certain partners associated with our achievements or with cooperative development, although that did help. I would not dare put any project forward, except the initiative projects.

Official Languages committee  We hope that a portion of the budget can be granted to us for this community assistance function, using or hoping to use the cooperative model to develop their businesses, keep them active, or take over those that have not been taken over by the conventional private sector, in view of the fact that there is currently no succession.

Official Languages committee  Allow me to share a perception. In view of the quite surprising figures revealing the extent of the cooperative movement's assets, perhaps we were considered too rich to have access to certain programs. In reality, it must be understood that every cooperative sector has its own mission which is related to its members.

Official Languages committee  I'll give you a concrete example. We are currently assisting a group of agricultural producers who are developing a completely new product. We're talking about the exploitation of an annual plant called reed canary grass that grows in abundance. It can be processed into pellets and used in that form as animal litter and even for heating.

Official Languages committee  With your permission, I will also react to the comment by Mr. Bélanger, who invited our organizations to work together. I don't want to speak for the other provinces, but, in New Brunswick, our organization currently represents 40 cooperatives from various activity sectors and 20 member support organizations, including the Société nationale de l'Acadie, which Mr.

Official Languages committee  I recently attended a national, even international conference organized by the Canadian Worker Co-op Federation and held in Quebec City on the organization of business in accordance with the cooperative model. There were actual, current examples of communities that have taken charge of their situation regarding the loss of services in their respective communities.

Official Languages committee  The Canadian Federation of Independent Business has noted that, by 2020, 20,000 businesses will be on the market. Half of them will find no takers. That's obviously an incredible opportunity. It also means there will be a crisis downstream. The cooperative movement can play a considerable role.

Official Languages committee  Those tools exist at the national level, at least for some of our requests. In particular, the Cooperative Development Initiative. We are thinking in particular of the Advisory Services component and the Innovative Cooperative Projects component as ways of assisting projects directly.