Mr. Chair, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss Industry Canada's role in the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality. I am here with my colleagues Lisa Setlakwe, who is Director General of the Regional Policy and Coordination Branch, and Aime Dimatteo, who is Director General of FedNor.
As you know, Industry Canada and the regional development agencies are responsible for implementing the economic development initiative, which is part of the roadmap. The purpose of the economic development initiative is to build on the economic advantages of linguistic duality and to support the economic development of the official language minority communities. The aim of the economic development initiative is to develop new expertise through innovation, partnerships, entrepreneurship, diversification and greater support for small and medium enterprises. The government has allocated a total of $30.5 million to the economic development initiative under the roadmap.
The economic development initiative is based on the coordination role that Industry Canada plays for federal partners in the initiative, including certain functions to which I will return in a moment. The regional development agencies and FedNor, in the case of northern Ontario, implement the economic development initiative at the local level based on their own program terms and conditions. This is a new approach to collaboration with the official language minority communities.
A change is being made and we are moving toward a more decentralized and regional, rather than centralized and national, approach. The regional development agencies are in an ideal position to work with the official language minority communities. Their offices and staff are in the field, and they are more familiar with local concerns and opportunities. Each agency is authorized and able to make its own funding decisions under the economic development initiative, and funding is granted directly to those agencies under the financial framework.
Industry Canada focuses its economic development initiative efforts in four key areas: first, national community consultations; second, a national research program; third, FedNor's program delivery function; and finally, evaluation. One of the cornerstones of the economic development initiative is the implementation of a national consultation process with official language minority communities. In the fall of 2010, Industry Canada organized two national economic development initiative dialogue days. One was with French-speaking organizations, and another was with English-speaking organizations of Quebec. In both cases, key partners from official language minority communities and federal institutions were present to update each other on progress achieved with the economic development initiative, to better understand and appreciate each others' circumstances and to develop closer working relationships.
A major outcome from these meetings was an agreement with our official language minority community partners to set up follow-up committees, to follow through on dialogue day commitments, and to open lines of communication on a more regular basis. For both economic development initiative follow-up committees, we are able to bring together the two major national minority language associations to sit down together to share information and ideas with their federal partners. The anglophone and francophone follow-up committees share information and meeting minutes and are now able to better understand each others' challenges and realities. Industry Canada considers the follow-up committees a valuable component of its consultative process. Our community partners also value these joint committees because they are results-oriented.
In the case of the anglophone committee, a specific project is under way to gain a better understanding of the role of the creative economy. I'll speak more to this in a moment.
The Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne,
for its part, was appreciative of the opportunity we provided for it to meet with departmental tourism officials and to work together and determine how official language minority communities could play an active role in the implementation of the federal tourism strategy that was launched in October 2011.
We have two permanent mechanisms, but at the same time we remain committed to formally consulting with our community partners with respect to the economic development initiative. We are currently assessing options to undertake another set of consultations this fall.
As part of our commitment under the economic development initiative, we coordinate a national research program focusing on evaluating the socioeconomic conditions of the official language minority communities. Research project selection decisions are made in cooperation with the federal partners in the economic development initiative. We organize regular meetings to discuss such issues as research and program evaluation. This research work enables the federal partners in the economic development initiative and other federal institutions involved in the roadmap to obtain evidence of economic trends and of impacts on policy development and program design.
Last year, in cooperation with our federal partners, we were one of the main contributors to the economic development workshop that was held at the same as the 2011 Symposium on Official Languages Research in Canada, organized by the Department of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages. We are thus actively making good on our commitment to official languages research by co-funding the development of a document that has helped community and federal partners acquire additional, current information on issues related to the official language minority communities. That document, entitled, Research on Economic Development in Official Language Minority Communities, was presented during the symposium and is now guiding our research efforts.
Community stakeholders send us observations, which we use in developing research plans. We also forward the results of completed research work to them. In this way, through the close working relationship that we have formed with the anglophone minority community over the past two years, we have funded a research project to which the Quebec English-Speaking Communities Research Network is contributing. This project is one example of a grassroots research initiative that will help us understand how the arts and culture sector contributes to the economic development of an official language minority community.
Industry Canada was the promoter of our research project involving the francophone community and concerning the economic integration of francophone immigrants. These are just a few examples of research projects that have been carried out in recent years. We have funded or co-funded more than 15 different studies and research projects.
Giving regional federal organizations the key role to deliver the economic development initiative locally has truly allowed us to build a stronger and more productive working relationship with official language minority communities. You'll hear more from the other agencies in this regard, as you have this morning from CanNor.
FedNor plays a similar role to that of the regional development agencies elsewhere in the country. With FedNor as a member of Industry Canada's portfolio, we have the benefit of seeing first-hand the concrete results of the program investments. FedNor is our eyes and ears in the field, building relationships with official language minority communities. FedNor, as the delivery agent for the economic development initiative in northern Ontario, has supported numerous projects.
One such project involved the trade mission at Futurallia in Kansas City. Futurallia brings together entrepreneurs from all over the world who meet over two days to get to know each other and foster business alliances. In 2011, a $55,000 FedNor contribution to RDÉE Ontario resulted in the training of 30 SMEs on business alliances, as well as the participation of 10 SMEs in the trade mission, 50% of which saw their sales increase or expect such increases based on negotiations under way. The project's proponents reported that participation at Futurallia allowed for the creation of 20 jobs and the maintenance of another 10. Also with this $55,000 contribution, seven new partnerships were created and three others were maintained. We expect more economic impacts in the months ahead. More recently, under another of its programs, FedNor approved a $605,000 contribution to RDÉE Ontario to make a similar and yet enhanced export development initiative available to all northern Ontario SMEs.
Futurallia is a success story for FedNor, and there are others like it. Industry Canada, through FedNor, since its implementation, has invested close to $4 million in 50 economic development initiative projects that aim at fostering sustainable economic growth in northern Ontario's francophone community.
Finally, I'd like to discuss our fourth area of focus: evaluation. Industry Canada carries responsibility for the overall evaluation of the economic development initiative. Using a common set of performance objectives, Industry Canada coordinates with the regional development agencies' evaluation and reporting for the initiative, which in turn feeds into Canadian Heritage's evaluation of the road map. We are in the midst of conducting the summative evaluation, the results of which will be made available shortly to Canadian Heritage.
The results of the economic development initiative evaluation and the overall evaluation of the road map will be instrumental in helping us develop options for the future. FedNor's economic development initiative activities have been evaluated recently and show that FedNor delivers the initiative efficiently and effectively, and that 50 projects funded through the economic development initiative meet the needs of official language minority communities. The evaluation report was published in February 2012.
In conclusion, Industry Canada believes that its involvement in the economic development initiative is making a real and positive contribution to improving the initiatives and activities that have an impact on the development and vitality of official language minority communities.
Thank you.