Evidence of meeting #17 for Official Languages in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was help.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director, Temiskaming Shores and Area Chamber of Commerce
I'm fairly new at this. I can't say I'm aware of all of those tax breaks. If there are tax breaks, I haven't felt them yet. But I offer an area—
Conservative
Director, Temiskaming Shores and Area Chamber of Commerce
Sorry?
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
Well, I was just thinking, as a young businesswoman it's pretty important that you are aware of those tax breaks, so make sure you find out.
Director, Temiskaming Shores and Area Chamber of Commerce
I realize that. I know. But by tripling, I've had no time. I'm a single mother. I have to do what I have to do.
But I do participate in my chamber of commerce. I do participate in the BIA. I try to be aware of those things first. Yes, I should be aware—I totally agree—but I'm telling you I'm oblivious, and there's no shame in that.
The other thing is that—
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
Trust me, then, you're better off now than you were about eight years ago.
Perhaps we can have Ethel's point of view on that.
President and Chief Executive Officer, L'Art du développement
About a decade ago, I was one of the people arguing for less bureaucracy. I felt there should be regulation, as long as it wasn't abusive. I also felt there should be tax deductions and tax incentives, which are not offered across Canada. If, as a business, I want to invest in my community, in projects where I live or in other businesses, it seems to me that I should be able to benefit from tax incentives meant to support the local economy.
Joline, I am getting you, really. The first business I had, I was your age, and I closed my shop because I was not able to find help for the growth of my enterprise.
President and Chief Executive Officer, L'Art du développement
I used to work in event planning. I organized the artistic programming for all events in the national capital—be it Canada Day, Winterlude or other events. When someone really wants to grow their business, they often need specialized support. When you create a company in the area of high technology, food service, plumbing, carpentry or forestry, you sometimes need specialized technical assistance in that field. I was in charge of event planning and festivals, but I did not have that kind of expertise, and I could not manage growth.
We also need that kind of support in our communities. I live in a village. In Plantagenet, I see that a third, if not almost half, of the village is receiving social assistance or employment insurance benefits. We have to find ways to create jobs for those marginalized people, based on the kind of employment available in our region. Those people do not necessarily have a vehicle to travel to the big city or elsewhere. They have to find a job in their area. If we find more inclusive ways to create employment for them, those people will also be buying locally. They live in those villages, and they don't want to go to Ottawa or Toronto to shop. They want to do that in Plantagenet, Alfred or Casselman. However, we are lacking the means to help them. Economic growth is necessary to achieving that, and it must be targeted on all fronts.
The government has made some progress by simplifying certain things, but the economic environment requires more to be done. We can work on this together. We are on the ground to study the issue. I invite you to look at my recommendations, among others.
Certain things could be done differently, and that approach may not always be more expensive. Making a small change to one of your policies or programs would suffice. That would have a greater impact on the economic development and growth of our villages and neighbourhoods.
Conservative
Joe Daniel Conservative Don Valley East, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, witnesses, for being here.
We've heard how much the francophone community contributes to the economy of Canada. It's obviously a major component of that. Is there a francophone economic space in Canada? If there is, how do we define it?
President and Chief Executive Officer, L'Art du développement
Is it for me that question?
You know.....
I switched to English. That's part of what being Franco-Ontarian means.
We created a francophone economic space, some 15 years ago, when we decided to talk to governments and the community, and to create chambers of commerce and business groups. We found resources to create the RDEE, support structures for economic development, networks and a variety of things in our communities.
Four or five years ago, we created a steering committee to organize the first pan-Canadian forum on economic development in the Canadian Francophonie, which was held in 2012. The forum brought together stakeholders from government, associations and the private sector of the francophone economy to discuss that space. The idea was to determine needs, decide whether any work needed to be done with regard to the market, policies, regulations or taxation, and to define what that space consisted of. You may be surprised, but a draft definition was just completed. It is actually not easy to define what a francophone economic space in a minority setting is, or what a francophone company in a minority setting is.
Mr. Griffith is absolutely right. Entrepreneurs want to sell their products and services. They will sell them in the language of the client, be they anglophone or francophone.
Francophones consider their companies to be different in terms of ownership and management. However, people can obtain services entirely in English in a francophone company. That space is still being defined. Three years ago, I would not have even been able to provide you with the figures I gave you earlier. We are just now beginning to establish economic partnerships between companies and universities in order to carry out research and prove that the francophone economy has added value.
Conservative
Joe Daniel Conservative Don Valley East, ON
Mr. Griffith, do you or anybody on your side have any comments?
James Franks Coordinator, Economic Development and Funding, City of Temiskaming Shores, Temiskaming Shores and Area Chamber of Commerce
From Temiskaming Shores' perspective, is there a specific space for francophone business? We mentioned earlier that 30% of our population is francophone. I would suggest to you that 90% of all business in this community is done in English. A small portion of that business is done in French, and that's among francophones who likely know each other in the community, and know they would speak first in French to those individuals. That's neither here nor there, good nor bad. It's just a reality.
Business is still predominantly done in English because again it's the split of the community. The francophones often advise customers that they're francophones because the concern is that maybe that customer may not come back if it's a francophone business versus an anglophone business. Again, whether that's right or wrong is irrelevant; I'm told that by francophone business owners. The francophone-only business is probably a very small percentage of business just because of that concern. If you're a francophone, you still need the other 70% of the customers in your community to come and shop at your store, so you need all the customers rather than just the 30% who are francophone only.
Conservative
Joe Daniel Conservative Don Valley East, ON
Let me just follow up from that. Obviously, that's one definition, or you're defining it in a very Canadian and introverted fashion. Does the definition include expanding into Francophonie countries? You know that this government is signing up to a European accord. There's a huge opportunity there for Francophonie people to be able to exploit that market.
Any comments?
President and Chief Executive Officer, L'Art du développement
We are already part of an entrepreneurial Francophonie network. Entrepreneurs can also meet at the Rencontre internationale de la Francophonie économique—international meeting of the Francophonie on the economy—and a number of other events organized by associations. Events have been organized in Canada—in Manitoba and Ontario—where some francophone companies from different countries participated. Connections have already been established within the community.
La Francophonie member countries are signing agreements amongst themselves. That adds value to the opportunities we have already started to develop. International meetings are being held already, be it through the Canadian Community Economic Development Network or the Réseau intercontinental de promotion de l'économie sociale solidaire, RIPESS.
People are already meeting around the world and doing business, be it as part of conventional economy—where private companies are participants—a fair trade-based economy, or something similar to that. There is a lot of variety.
The francophone global market has about 900 million francophones, 9 million of whom are in Canada.
Conservative
NDP
Manon Perreault NDP Montcalm, QC
I want to thank the witnesses for being here today.
I will begin with Ms. Côté. Then, I will move on to Mr. Griffith.
Ms. Côté, since the beginning of the meeting, we have been talking about the importance of social economy as a local economy with the goal of fostering the economic development of minority francophone communities.
If you could list only three winning conditions to truly support the economic development of minority francophone communities, what would they be?
President and Chief Executive Officer, L'Art du développement
Francophones in minority communities who own a business will end up providing their products and services in English, but often, they draft their business plans in French, and they have to be able to present them to various lenders or investors.
A few months ago, I did some research to find out who, in Ontario, had the money to invest in both francophone and anglophone potentially-viable small companies, be they social or cooperative—in short, companies of all kinds. We came up with 60 different sources of funding, in the north, mid north, west, south central and eastern part of the province. In most cases, the documents have to be submitted in English, unless they are meant for the federal or provincial government.
Now that we know that those funding sources are available, we ask them to hire a bilingual individual next time, and we offer to help translate tools. Over the past few months, three organizations have already started creating a review committee for business plans in French and English.
Steering committees have also been created for money-lending activities. One of the winning conditions is to make any money for investment in companies—be they private or social—available to both francophones and anglophones across the country. People need to have access to capital.
Another winning condition is training. Some Canadian regions have no training provided in French. Of course, people can learn their trade or profession in another language to manage their company, but certain things are done better in our mother tongue. Infrastructure is growing, but we are lacking the resources and support in French.
Another key condition is tailored guidance. Every company is unique, as is its context. The context will be different depending on whether you open a bookstore in Vancouver, New Liskeard or Rockland. People need guidance throughout the process. I am not saying that we should do things for those people, but simply provide them with guidance when they need a bit of help to carry out their business plan.
So why is there so much activity in all the regions of Quebec? It's because there is a variety of practices, organizations and intermediaries involved in providing tailored guidance. A private company will turn to the CLD, a cooperative to the Coopérative de développement régional, a social enterprise to the Corporation de développement communautaire.
I can count on the fingers of one hand the organizations from my area, in Ontario, that provide guidance to companies in French. In Alberta and in British Columbia, those organizations are even fewer in number. Yet there are still plenty of people dreaming about starting a company at the community meetings we attend.
Access to capital is needed—regardless of the organization that manages the money—as is access to guidance in French. Some positive practices have been established in Quebec, and elsewhere. It is simply a matter of adapting the tools to the regional context.
NDP
Manon Perreault NDP Montcalm, QC
So you are basically saying that those people are negatively affected by access issues.
President and Chief Executive Officer, L'Art du développement
Having no access to good funding—be it in terms of grants or loans—and to the right information in French at the right time does have negative consequences. For instance, a francophone may be able to read in English. However, if they do not understand taxation—God knows it can be complicated—and the information is only available in English, how can they know whether there are any measures their company could benefit from? If they have no one to help them in that area, they won't know about any of that.
That is why, during the pan-Canadian forum on economic development in the Canadian Francophonie, we decided that, since we could not be everywhere, we should think about creating a portal for the francophone economy in order to share the resources. There is variety of guides, resources and courses, so they should be made accessible across the country.
We are currently working on implementing such tools, so that we can at least learn from one another by sharing our practices, tools and resources.
NDP
Manon Perreault NDP Montcalm, QC
I will now turn to Ms. Rivard or Mr. Griffith.
Earlier, you talked about businesses with francophone owners. This morning, when we discussed this, someone said that your website was available exclusively in English. I am not saying anything negative, but I would like to know something. Does your website not provide bilingual documentation because you are lacking financial and human resources?
Go ahead, Ms. Rivard.
