The definition of a francophone business varies with the people we talk to. However, four important parameters should be considered.
The first parameter is territory. A business located in Caraquet, on the Acadian Peninsula in New Brunswick, will obviously be a francophone business in most cases.
There is also the French-language services aspect. Businesses in Halifax or Edmonton may also offer French-language services and are therefore receptive to high-quality services in the official language of the client's choice.
Another parameter is ownership of the business. In some cases, a business belongs entirely to a francophone, or it may be subject to co-ownership. A man and a woman or an anglophone and a francophone may own a business.
I believe that one other aspect is very important in the definition of a francophone business, and that is the business's involvement in the community. I will cite a specific example. I have lived in Halifax for 25 years and am a member of the Chambre de commerce francophone d'Halifax. Some board members are not necessarily francophones. They are francophiles, people like you, anglophones who speak French. They are involved in the francophone economy and in the francophone community. In some cases, these anglophone entrepreneurs who speak French contribute to a theatre play or a club at a community school centre. In those cases, I believe you can say they are francophone businesses.
This is how we try to determine what francophone businesses are. However, this is an important research issue. We find it hard to determine what constitutes a francophone business. We can put the question to Industry Canada, for example, which works with the business sector, but how do we know whether we have the right information given the way the questions are asked and the four parameters that I have presented to you? We need more research—again it comes back to research—to determine to a large extent what the francophone businesses are. Our organization wants to support the francophone economy or the francophone economic space, but we have to know what our clientele is.
We know certain aspects, but we would like to take the research further.