Those tools exist at the national level, at least for some of our requests. In particular, the Cooperative Development Initiative. We are thinking in particular of the Advisory Services component and the Innovative Cooperative Projects component as ways of assisting projects directly.
At the national level, we obviously need a development fund. A request for that is already in the system. We also need the Cooperative Investment Plan to facilitate the capitalization of cooperatives. We know that very significant reserves are built up over time. However, the initial investment is not as easy as in the traditional private sector, where they are built on utility value, which is the value of the service, of the employment and so on.
On that basis, we also need to be equipped directly for advisory services and assistance. The Coopérative de développement régional — Acadie ltée in New Brunswick has a budget of approximately $350,000. It currently has six employees, including two part-time employees. It's a vulnerable team to the extent that we partly depend on the federal program. We receive assistance from our contributors, our cooperative members, but the situation is really precarious.
We view ourselves as a form of economic and community development agency that must be supported by all possible bodies. In our opinion, the Roadmap is a part of that.