Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First, we work in close cooperation with the francophone communities, which are linguistic minority communities in the north. Some 2.5% of the total population of the high north live in francophone communities.
For them, we have used the funding provided to us through the economic development initiative, the EDI. We have used that money to leverage funding from some of our other programs. For example, earlier I mentioned the SINED program, which is providing $90 million over five years, allocated fairly among the three territories.
In addition, Table 867 brought together the three francophone associations and their respective development arms. For example, the Association des francophones du Nunavut was with Carrefour Nunavut, and the Fédération franco-ténoise with CDÉTNO. We brought them together through Table 867 and, together with them, developed a strategic plan to determine the important economic areas in which investments had to be made in the coming years to develop the vitality of the linguistic communities.
For example, the northern linguistic communities determined that tourism was indeed important. They talked about attracting francophone tourism to the high north. They decided to develop what we call the pan-territorial tourism strategy. As a result, the three francophone communities in the north have received a total of $453,000, which they will spend in the next few years to reinforce the supply of and demand for tourist activities in the high north.
This is how we make sure there is economic vitality in the francophone communities. We sit down with them, we draw up a strategic plan, we agree on projects, and we use money from the EDI—$400,000 over four years—and as a lever to secure other funds from our other financial contribution budgets.