Good morning.
Today, I represent the Conseil économique et coopératif de la Saskatchewan. Our organization has been in existence for 71 years and is committed to economic development for Saskatchewan francophones.
People often ask us how we can engage in economic development in French in Saskatchewan. It's being done thanks to the men, women, entrepreneurs and organizations that want to be served in French and to many partnerships that we have established with the federal government. We nevertheless manage to provide services within our means.
For example, in western Canada, we have a partnership with Western Economic Diversification Canada, or WD. The four western provinces also have francophone economic organizations that help those provinces work together to provide services to francophones in the region.
The challenges we face in this project are still enormous. How can we provide services to Fransaskois residents without really being able to do it in a very professional way? I don't want to repeat what the others have said, but the resources available to address the expectations we have are always very limited.
In addition, some agreements, such as those we have with Canada Economic Development, or CED, which covers all the provinces and territories except Quebec, really give us a chance to put in place the Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité du Canada, or RDÉE Canada. We always try as far as possible to provide services in the areas of community economic development, business development and employability.
Similarly, challenges differ from province to province. Consider the case of Saskatchewan. Since you won't be here for long, you won't have occasion to visit all our francophone communities. Since they are somewhat dispersed, no matter the organization at the table, it always costs more to provide services to francophones than to other organizations. Consider the example of an organization based in Winnipeg. In Manitoba, 80% of the francophone community lives in Winnipeg. Here in Saskatchewan, we have francophones in Regina, Bellegarde, Zenon Park and Debden, and I'll stop there. We face enormous challenges.
We nevertheless want to thank the government for the roadmap that is still in force this year. We made some proposals. I think some of them were considered and others even implemented.
My colleague from the Association des parents fransaskois raised a very important point: we have to see how the organizations in our communities can work together to determine challenges and solve problems. For that purpose, the government allocated funding to enable economic organizations such as ours, the Association des parents francophones and the Association des collèges et universités de la francophonie canadienne to work together and to find solutions to our communities' problems. This is a very interesting point, but we still have to work on the mechanics. I think we have to move in that direction and keep an open mind. We can still enter into these kinds of agreements. I would like the next roadmap to include a partnership with Réseau santé en français de la Saskatchewan. I think there are some challenges facing the community that we can work on.
I believe some steps have been taken. However, given what we see on the ground and the projects we see that majority organizations are able to carry out, we still have some challenges to overcome. They must be taken into consideration in certain programs and agreements.
In closing, I would add that the agreements reached between the federal government and the provinces should be more clearly defined in some respects. The francophone file is not solely the federal government's responsibility. The provinces also have some responsibilities. The representative associations should probably notify the organizations affected by these programs and agreements so they can see to what extent services will be offered to francophones.