I could give it a bit of an idea here.
We need to demonstrate to the rest of Canada the social capital that the English-speaking community of Quebec represents.
One of the pieces of work that was fascinating in the Townships, as one townshipper to another, is that we did a study, an academic study, around immigrant retention or immigrant attraction. Compared to the Townships, immigrant attraction and retention was much stronger in Quebec City than in the Townships.
If you go into Quebec City, there is an infrastructure. There's a hospital. There are services. They are only 2% of the population, but the population is incredibly strong, very representative on tables de concertation. They are within the fabric, while retaining their identity.
That was interesting for us, because in the Townships there seems to have been a loss of civic engagement. While there are a lot of volunteers, they're not attracting enough people. The conclusion of the academic research was that there was more social cohesion infrastructure in Quebec City, and therefore more attraction.
I think we could apply that to lots of places. In Montreal there is social cohesion. There is attractiveness. It attracts. I think in general we have to look attractive for other people in the rest of Canada—especially the young people, but all people—to come to Quebec, and if they come,
there must be jobs. We agree with CEDEC's view on that.
People will come if there are jobs. That would be my piece.
The feds need to help build the notion of social cohesion in the English-speaking community and point out our contribution to Quebec and Canadian society.