Good morning everyone. I am very moved by the fact that you have begun your tour here in Newfoundland and that you chose to make this your first stop in this province before all of the others. As I said earlier to a few of you, it is unfortunate that there are not more participants. We got organized at the last minute, because we found out about this a bit late. This will not, however, prevent us from providing you with a wonderful overview, so that you have a better idea of what is happening in our beautiful province.
I am the coordinator for the Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité, the RDÉE. I do not know if you are all familiar with this project, but it is a project and our sponsoring organization is the Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador.
There is an RDÉE in every province and territory of the country. This is an initiative of the National Committee for Canadian Francophonie Human Resources Development, the NCCFHRD — a very long acronym —, which was established in 1996. The NCCFHRD set up the RDÉE along with Human Resources and Development Canada, HRDC — which is now called Services Canada — in order to help minority communities. This was an effort to deal with employability and all of the problems Cyrilda mentioned earlier, such as the exodus of young people. Communities in minority situations required assistance. Each province and territory had its own RDÉE so that, using all of these measures, a little more vitality could be injected in places that already had some. Some of our communities already have a great deal of vitality.
The organization that oversees our RDÉE is the Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador. You will note that the sponsoring organization for most of the provinces and territories that have an RDÉE is an economic development agency. Moreover, this is why this is known as the Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité. We are not focused solely on economic development, as some people may believe. We exist to help with employability measures and to facilitate development initiatives.
Our province and each of our francophone regions are very well represented as far as that is concerned. I also manage my own team. This is what the director referred to earlier. Working with me are four economic development officers who each focus on one sector in particular. We have a youth sector, which is a priority, an economy and knowledge sector, a tourism sector and a rural development sector. One officer works in our francophone community in Labrador City — Labrador City/Wabush is one of the three francophone regions in the province —, one officer works in the Port-au-Port Peninsula and two others are based here in St. John's. In addition, we have some administrative support. This team is there to assist communities and facilitate economic development initiatives. We do not work directly with the private sector, although the private sector can be a partner. We work a great deal with our francophone communities and organizations.
Earlier, during the question period, I may turn the tables on you and ask you what you know about the RDÉE. Indeed, this may be a difficult concept to grasp, because it is a relatively new organization.
To assist and support all of the RDÉEs in the country, there is an organization called RDÉE Canada, which oversees everything that is happening in the country. This organization also knocks on the big doors in Ottawa to try to find financing for other national projects. Indeed, provinces and territories can work together to initiate projects that have an impact on all of us. For example, the four RDÉEs in the Atlantic region tend to work together to initiate common projects, to try to find common links because, as you all know, even though we are all francophones working in francophone communities, there are at times certain differences. Demographics may, for instance, be different. However, we do have many points in common. Among other things, we may initiate projects in cooperation with the provinces, even though at times we do not believe that we necessarily have these things in common. Right now we have a project with Saskatchewan to set up an electronic business and support site for communities, in order to further entrepreneurship.
I believe that we really rely a great deal on the strength of the network. That is why there are organizations such as RDÉE Canada, which oversee all of that to some extent, but the fact remains that we are still, if we can call it that, independent from them. We are still attached to our organization, which I would call the delegate organization.
Here, since we do not have as many francophones as in other areas, as I was saying earlier, we are linked to the Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador. At present we do not have a francophone Chamber of commerce or economic council. We will be looking into this matter since it is becoming necessary, since there is a demand for it.
The enabling fund enables us to work with the Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité, but it does impose some limitations on us. Nevertheless, the main priority is still — and God knows how high the unemployment rate is in our province — to help our communities living in minority situations.
I think that we have, in certain cases, moved on to the next phase. Some regions are growing. There was a time when we talked a great deal about the survival of our community. I sincerely believe, and I am saying this to you in all honesty, that we have moved on to the next step. I believe that we are really going through a time where we are aware of the projects and we are aware of our strengths, and we can in fact draw from this in order to develop. Obviously, there is a lot of work to be done. I was pleased to hear, a little while ago, my boss giving you a bit of a description — albeit only a geographic one, of the province. You can see that we are facing challenges. You were all able to experience for yourselves what trasnportation, for instance, is like here and you say how difficult it is to get here. Another challenge we are up against is the threat of assimilation: in some regions, assimilation is not far from our doorstep whereas in other areas, the problem is greater. This is precisely why we have to remain united. We are a community — someone pointed this out earlier, which pleased me — which remains very active despite everything. We could use as an excuse the fact that we are so scattered, that there are three regions that are so far apart from each other and so we cannot do this or that. We are, however, strong and united.
Moreover, I would like to take this opportunity if I may, Cyrilda, to mention that the AGA will be held soon. So if some of you would like to attend, you would be welcome, because, as part of our activities, we will be holding a community forum where there will be other participants aside from us three. All of the provincial organizations will be in attendance, as well as guests and government representatives. If you are interested, the AGA will be on November 17 and 18.
That is, in a nutshell, what I wanted to say to you about the national and provincial network. If you have any specific questions, we could discuss them later on.
Thank you.