Mr. Chairman, committee members, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for giving us the opportunity to be here today.
First, allow me to introduce my colleague, Gilles Pelletier, Director General of Regional Operations. During our appearance, we will place the implementation of the Official Languages Act in the Quebec context, we will discuss the mandate of Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, and we will focus on how we are meeting our obligations under the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality.
First a word about the linguistic situation in Quebec.
Unlike the situation in the other Canadian provinces and territories, Quebec anglophones constitute the official language minority community, commonly called an OLMC. Quebec's anglophone OLMC's represent 1 million persons. Of that number, 600,000 have English as their mother tongue, 400,000 are allophones, and approximately 30,000 are aboriginal.
There is a notable concentration of anglophones in Quebec: 80% of them live in the greater Montreal area. They have networks, institutions and a critical mass in their own community; 10% live in other large urban areas such as Gatineau, Quebec City and Sherbrooke; and the remaining 10% live in remote or isolated rural areas such as Gaspésie, the lower north shore and northern Quebec.
Many of Quebec's English-speaking communities are finding it difficult to achieve economic integration. Through its activities, the agency encourages the communities to get involved in their economic development.
Our agency's mission is to promote the long-term economic development of the Quebec regions, with special attention to economic low-growth regions and those that do not have enough productive employment opportunities. Our long-term objective is to ensure that Quebec's regions and communities increase their development capacity, vitality and prosperity in a significant and sustainable manner.
The agency must also assist in achieving the objectives of the Official Language Act.
According to section 41, we must deliver on our commitment to support the vitality of communities and the linguistic duality of Canada. The agency is also among the departments that contribute to the attainment of the road map for Canada's linguistic duality. One outcome of the road map aims to reinforce the economic development of communities. As you see, this is directly related to the original economic development mandate of our agency.
One of the positive measures we have taken to fully discharge our obligations under the act and roadmap is to develop and implement an action plan. The purpose of that results-based action plan, which meets the requirements of part VII of the act, is to promote the economic integration of the OLMCs. The plan is divided into six action areas: awareness, consultation, communication, coordination and liaison, funding and service delivery and, lastly, accountability. We developed this action based on a renewed approach to the OLMCs.
We have been forging ties with those organizations for several years now, and our meetings have led to a better understanding of the needs of the OLMCs and enabled them to gain a greater understanding of the services the agency offers and of the specific measures designed to enhance their vitality.
The purpose of this ongoing dialogue is to promote the integration of this community within the Quebec economy. Like the other federal departments, we also took action to fulfill our obligation with respect to parts 4, 5, and 6 of the Official Languages Act.
To respond to part IV, we have made a considerable effort to increase the awareness of our staff and to enhance our capacity to respond to the public in both official languages where required. Those efforts have been acknowledged by the Commissioner of Official Languages, who gave the agency a high mark in his more recent report card. The commissioner also gave us a good mark on part V, which concerns language of work. We invested $41,000 in 2010-2011 to maintain linguistic gains and to establish the required linguistic profiles for the 322 bilingual positions out of the total 365 positions at the agency.
The agency now intends to take the necessary measures to try to increase anglophone representation in our organization and thus to improve our ranking on part VI of the act. We have already carried out promotion and recruitment activities aimed at anglophone university students. Lastly, with regard to part VII and section 41, I am pleased to inform you that the commissioner has given us an exemplary mark for the positive measures we have taken. In recent years, the agency has implemented an approach involving ongoing dialogue with the OLMCs.
Through the many activities we have introduced, we have been able to gain a clearer understanding of the OLMCs' needs and to communicate information on available programs and services more effectively so as to support the vitality of those communities.
In the spirit of the commissioner's recommendation, we worked to take more integrated action with the other federal organizations in Quebec. For example, we collaborated with Industry Canada in organizing the dialogue with the English language minority of Quebec.
These distinctions do us credit and reflect well on the organization as a whole. The Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality has made it possible to provide stronger support for economic development projects in the OLMCs. Through this pan-Canadian initiative, the agency received $10.2 million allocated over five years to enhance the activities we were already conducting.
This initiative has helped fund projects presented by non-profit organizations and businesses. The agency approved nine new projects in 2011-2012, totaling $2.6 million in financial assistance and $9.3 million in investment. For example, the agency supported a pilot project of the Youth Employment Services agency. The purpose of that project is to provide support to young anglophone entrepreneurs located in the regions.
In its efforts to promote linguistic duality, the agency also supported a project led by the Committee for Anglophone Social Action. The project will help get the two linguistic communities to work in tandem, develop alliances, and share their know-how so as to increase their contribution to the regional economy.
Our business offices have also taken various initiatives designed to promote the vitality of the OLMCs in their areas. For example, our Gaspésie-Magdalen Islands office has supported various economic development projects in the past year and attended many meetings designed to support the community in structuring its tourism sector. In addition, the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality also provides for a performance measurement strategy implemented by the partner departments and agencies in the initiative. To do this, the agency is integrating that strategy into its own departmental performance measure. In this way, we will be able to provide data and periodic reports on the performance of projects being carried out under the initiative.
As can see, we are contributing to the vitality of the OLMCs by supporting actual economic development and diversification projects related to our mandate. We will continue providing our assistance to the OLMCs, not only under the roadmap, but also through our programming and action plan, as well as ongoing dialogue. Our contribution will enable these communities to take an active part in their economic development and to integrate more effectively into the Quebec community, regardless of the official language they speak.
Thank you for your attention.