Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Hello, everyone. I would like to thank the members of the Standing Committee on Official Languages for inviting us here today.
My name is Jean-Guy Bigeau and I am the president and executive director of the Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité, ou RDEE, of Canada. It is a non-profit organization that has more than 160 employees and experts and that has a presence in every province and territory.
As we mark our 20th anniversary in 2017, our network continues to be the leader and advocate for economic development and employability in francophone and Acadian minority communities in Canada.
We are here today primarily to talk to you about the government's roadmap for official languages and, more specifically, the issue of francophone immigration in minority communities. That part will be covered by my colleague, Ms. Abdi-Aden.
What has the current roadmap allowed us to do? Under the 2013-18 roadmap, RDEE Canada received total funding of $69 million over five years. While this might seem like a substantial amount at first, we must remember that it is used to fund all the network's activities, in every province and territory.
Nonetheless, stable, long-term funding like this allows us to undertake innovative projects over several years and to offer a range of services to francophone minority communities. The results of these activities are concrete and tangible.
For example, it has allowed us to help francophone entrepreneurs draft and develop business plans; to support market studies; to help businesses with expansion, acquisition and succession; and to support young entrepreneurs and business networks.
We also have more specific projects, such as the creation of day camps for francophone youth in the territories; the development of green practices for small francophone municipalities in western Canada; the retention of young workers in the maritime provinces through exciting placement programs or through tourism development for local businesses.
Although the enabling fund for official language minority communities is flexible enough to allow us to tailor our activities to the needs of francophone and Acadian communities, the program's parameters are nonetheless for a very specific niche. In the next roadmap, it would be interesting to create funding envelopes similar to the enabling fund for other departments, specifically, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Small Business and Tourism, and Environment and Climate Change Canada. These departments could then ratify partnerships with representative organizations such as ours in order to offer all the necessary services to minority communities.
Moreover, RDEE Canada published two documents in the past year pertaining to your committee's study, specifically, the white book on economic prosperity in francophone and Acadian communities, as well a Canadian economic development plan for official language minority communities. If you are interested, we would be pleased to share these documents with the committee after this presentation.