Official Languages committee  I'm perhaps more familiar with the situation in New Brunswick. In some regions in the northern part of the province, and even in the Moncton area, French is the main language of work in some federal departments. For example, I worked at Fisheries and Oceans Canada's head office in Moncton when I was a student, and I spoke French most of the time.

Official Languages committee  That is critical. It's important to understand that solutions often take time to materialize, so we have to act now if we want to solve the problem within a few years. Supporting post-secondary institutions is essential, in my opinion.

Official Languages committee  At the provincial level, it often depends on the agenda and the priorities of the government of the day. I don't think we can come to just one conclusion that applies uniformly to all provinces and regions. I think it's essential that all three levels of government work together and pull in the same direction.

Official Languages committee  Earlier we were talking about francophone entrepreneurs. Is it the manager or is it the business owner? That's what needs to be defined. That's part of the challenge. In francophone minority communities, it doesn't matter if the president, owner or manager of a business is anglophone, as long as the employees can operate and work in French.

Official Languages committee  Absolutely. In the past, people often had to leave their communities in order to find employment. Now, when a region has lots of economic activity, they at least have a choice. I would never criticize anyone who wants to go elsewhere to make a living. However, what I do see as a serious problem is when people want to stay in their communities—often rural francophone communities—but they're forced to go elsewhere because of the lack of opportunities and choices.

Official Languages committee  This is fundamental in a number of ways. First of all, there's a lot of talk about labour shortages. That said, we must help parents who want to enter the workforce. I think early childhood services are essential to promote the integration and retention of these people in the workforce.

Official Languages committee  Among the factors identified were early childhood and immigration, as they often go hand in hand. Immigrants want their children to grow up in French. When they arrive in francophone minority communities outside Quebec, having access to early childhood services in French becomes attractive for them.

Official Languages committee  I will answer quickly by saying that, when it comes to mobility, we want to stay in rural areas, but we need access to what is happening elsewhere. For that, we need high-speed Internet access, which is unfortunately not always available in rural areas. On the other hand, without necessarily having an airport in every community, we would have to have air services that would enable us to go to the major centres once or twice a month to attend meetings and participate in development.

Official Languages committee  Yes, that's right. The data we use is often census data. We're not necessarily offered the data to analyze a company's structure. Instead, we are given access to data related to places of residence and households. The data are therefore more related to employees, and not to the business environment.

Official Languages committee  It would be our pleasure to do so.

Official Languages committee  The difficulty lies in defining “francophone entrepreneur”. Is it the entrepreneur who speaks French, but whose employees speak English? Is it foreign ownership? Nailing down this definition is often the biggest challenge. Even with Statistics Canada censuses, it's not easy to access this information.

Official Languages committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. My name is Pierre-Marcel Desjardins. I'm a professor of economics at the Université de Moncton. I've worn other hats, including that of chair of the board of RDEE Canada for two years. I'd like to submit four points to you. Firstly, it often happens in economics that we don't give enough importance to what we might call transaction costs.