Thank you for your question.
There are certainly benefits. I could discuss those of the past few years. Imagine what we could do if adequate funds had been invested!
As for what public diplomacy brings to Acadia, it spreads the benefits throughout the Atlantic provinces. Were it not for the international work that Acadia, and hence its mouthpiece, the SNA, Atlantic Canada's international efforts would mostly be limited to relations with New England.
Public diplomacy makes it possible for the entire region to maintain relations abroad, with countries it does not generally do business with. I'll give you an example.
Two years ago, President Macron asked us to put together an Acadian delegation to accompany Ms. Antonine Maillet to the l'Élysée. We also invited Mr. Colton LeBlanc, the minister of Acadian affairs and la Francophonie for Nova Scotia. He was a young minister and part of a government that had been elected only two months earlier. It was in the middle of the COVID‑19 pandemic, with borders about to be closed and travel Limited. Mr. LeBlanc came with us, and when he returned the following week, he told his colleagues in cabinet what he had experienced. He told them that President Macron had promised to come to Nova Scotia, at the invitation of the delegation. This young minister had thefore opened the door to collaboration between France and Nova Scotia. We would never have expected that to happen.
Since then, the Premier of Nova Scotia has been to France on two occasions, to forge further ties and establish relations. Not only that, but the Premier of Nova Scotia has also been to France since then. So there have been benefits for government.
This has also had an impact on our work. One of our initiatives was the strategy to promote Acadian artists internationally, called SPAASI. We were able to demonstrate that every dollar invested in this program by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency generated five dollars for Acadian artists. Since the launch of SPAASI 25 years ago, benefits from abroad for Acadian artists have totalled $200 million. That's nothing to sneeze at.
And the 1999 summit generated $78 million in benefits for the region.