Good morning, everyone. I represent the Société Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin de l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard, the organism that is the mouthpiece of Acadians and Francophones in the province. I apologize on behalf of our new president, Mr. Edmond Richard. He wanted to be here today, but had to go to Quebec City for the launch of the new policy.
We have approximately 136,000 inhabitants in Prince Edward Island. Of that number, approximately 4.4% have French as their mother tongue. However, if you add all those who speak French, there is a total of more than 16,000 Francophones, 12% of the population. In Prince Edward Island, we have significant potential for developing the Acadian and Francophone community.
As Mr. Landry has already said, exogamy and assimilation are very important issues for us. In Prince Edward Island, the Acadian assimilation rate is much higher than it is nationally. It is approximately 56%, whereas the national average is 31%. That means we're facing serious challenges.
The action plan has enabled us to make the targeted departments more aware of the provision of services and of the challenges facing the Acadian and Francophone community. However, we haven't enjoyed significant investment directly related to community development, that is to say of our French-language communities in an English-dominant environment. If we have one recommendation to make, it would be that this deficiency be corrected.
Since 2001, the number of French-language schools in Prince Edward Island has increased from two to six. The offer of services has risen and demand is still increasing. Unfortunately, funding allocated to our communities has not increased. Consequently, we are having trouble meeting the demand that we have created by establishing these centres.
As their name suggests, the school-community centres have a community development component, and that component is related to the French-language schools. That makes all the difference in our communities when it comes to developing Francophonie and fighting assimilation. However, to do this, we need significant investment at the federal and provincial levels. Similarly to what Mr. Landry said, I would say that our provinces should be included in the action plan as regards the areas of jurisdiction for which they're responsible.
In addition, the preschool centres are of the highest importance for us. I know that my colleague Nicole Drouin will be talking about that as well. For the moment, our young children start school without good knowledge of the language. Not every generation of parents has had access to French-language schools. That's another very important priority that would require greater investment.
In spite of everything, good things are happening in Prince Edward Island. Among other things, we've created a tripartite human resources development committee, consisting of representatives of the federal and provincial governments as well as the community. Since the action plan went into effect, we note that the group has expanded. That has created work. More and more federal governments targeted by the action plan are being added, thus making the services provided by the federal and provincial governments and by the communities more accessible to the French-language communities. Among other things, we've seen a number of departments get involved in developing an action plan that will help specifically to enhance the accessibility of services offered in French.
A large part of the action plan could involve the tripartite group and, among other things, the Vision Plan, the comprehensive development plan for the Acadian and Francophone community. This is an exhaustive plan in which more than 500-member stakeholders of our community have taken part, either through consultations or the plan's development. The plan touches on all aspects of the development of our community.