RDEE Ontario is trying to use the Canadian francophonie as an increasingly stronger economic driver internationally. That can support, if you will, the economic development strategies used by communities.
To give you a few figures, in 2014, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie identified 274 million French speakers in the world compared to 220 million in 2010. So there has been a 25% increase in four years. A study by Natixis Bank, republished by Forbes magazine, advances the hypothesis that, by 2050, French will be the most widely spoken language in the world, more than English and Mandarin—perhaps Ms. Kenny’s long-awaited dream—with 750 million speakers.
In a context where the world’s francophonie is experiencing an unprecedented demographic growth and with the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement that will hopefully come into effect soon, RDEE Ontario is trying, as I said earlier, to use those assets as increasingly more efficient economic drivers on an international scale.
Businesses that include a cohort of bilingual francophones in their workforce planning will clearly have an advantage on the world’s francophone markets.