Absolutely, Mr. Housefather, and thank you for the question.
Your experience in our community is apparent, as is your sensitivity to the issues we face.
We've talked about the importance, as Ms. Martin-Laforge mentioned, of having jobs as a key way of making sure we're in a vibrant society and a vibrant location. We believe that the notion of creating a capital fund that would allow us to invest in official-language minority community businesses could help us enormously in this respect. This would be something that would occur in urban centres but also be distributed so that those individuals you referred to, in places like the Gaspésie, the Eastern Townships, and other places where there is a significant minority, would have an equal opportunity to create jobs and create businesses.
In doing that—and we talked about this in association with the creation of the capital fund—we would enable businesses in Quebec to gain a greater awareness of markets outside and help them to get to other parts of Canada. It would provide services to enable businesses in other parts of Canada to be in Quebec, Canada's second-largest market.
This is not always an instinct that happens naturally, for a variety of reasons, including the unique circumstances associated with Quebec from an investment perspective, together with the somewhat different legal environment. Having another language to work with is sometimes perceived as added costs for businesses in other locations, and we don't fully recognize all the benefits associated with this. This is another measure that would help enormously with the attraction.
With respect to the students, I think there is a tremendous opportunity for us to echo some of the initiatives undertaken by the Government of Quebec such as trying, through Montréal International, to launch a $1.3-million program that seeks to retain graduate students. This is not necessarily happening in English-speaking institutions at the moment. There is a wonderful opportunity for us to do that. It presents a sad state of affairs, sometimes, to witness the tremendous capacity and investment that goes into wonderful students who enjoy their time enormously while they are in Quebec, yet are not introduced to Quebec and are simply not asked to stay. That's all we need to do in many cases.