It should be noted from the outset that the Conseil canadien de la coopération et de la mutualité is honestly unable to evaluate the impact of the current Roadmap as the cooperatives were unable to be partners in the Roadmap's implementation. We argued in favour of including a major economic development component in the current Roadmap, but our recommendation went unheeded.
Today we are back before you to propose that an economic development component be introduced in the next Roadmap. Our argument is simple: if the members of the francophone minority communities and Acadians cannot do business in their language, they are doomed to slow but certain assimilation.
It must be possible to discuss everything and to make every choice in French, whether it concerns family finances or the various necessary transactions of everyday life, in the areas of legal needs, medical care and tax payments. Otherwise, we quickly forget the terms associated with those notions in our mother tongue.
For more than 100 years, the cooperatives have been important players in maintaining, consolidating and developing the francophone and Acadian communities. They have played an essential role in ensuring their cohesion and integration into Canadian economic life.
Some of these experiences are well documented. We can cite the example of the Evangeline region in Prince Edward Island and that of the Lamèque and Miscou Islands in New Brunswick. In fact, the cooperative model has enabled those communities to live and work in their mother tongue through the introduction of measures to strengthen the use of their language in all areas of activity. It has enabled those communities to preserve and support their vitality, to organize and to live on the land they have chosen.
Cooperative development is a serious, effective, transparent and democratic business model. Unlike individual entrepreneurship, it is a collective business model that is largely unknown. It can be presented as an alternative to a possible entrepreneurial venture.
The strength of the cooperative model has been proven. An analysis of the survival rate of cooperatives conducted by the Quebec Ministry of Economic Development, Innovation and Export in 2008 showed that cooperatives have a much longer lifespan than private Quebec businesses. Four in 10 cooperatives have been in business for more than a decade, compared to two in 10 for all Quebec businesses.
However, cooperatives are not just another way to do business, but a specific, value-based business model that can be adapted to all sectors of activity and businesses of all sizes. At a time when a large part of the world's population is indignant, cooperatives can offer new sustainable economic development solutions and more consistent with communities' needs.
In addition, the Canadian government is currently making a significant effort to strengthen the Canadian economy and permit the creation of new businesses. In the circumstances, it could choose to cooperate closely with the cooperative movement to develop innovative and sustainable solutions.
Our commitment to cooperative development has been supported for a number of years by a program of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. It has also been supported by the efforts of existing cooperatives. You will find figures and actual results in the document that was distributed to you.
The Rural and Cooperatives Secretariat is the Government of Canada's entry point for all questions regarding the cooperative movement. The secretariat was recently invited to join the group of ministers working on the new Roadmap. We are pleased to support its efforts and hope the relationship will encourage recognition of the cooperative movement as an essential player in an economic development component that is included in the Roadmap.
Lastly, we support the implementation of an expanded pan-Canadian issue table involving the cooperative movement in order to develop a coherent national policy on economic and social development in which the cooperative movement would be invited to take part. We also believe the cooperative model must be recognized as an economic development tool, an essential business model for official language minority communities.
Thank you for your attention.