Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
First of all, I want to inform you that my colleague seems to be having connection problems. That's unfortunate because he's highly qualified and could have assisted the committee by answering questions. I'll do my best to answer them.
Members of the committee, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Karl Blackburn, and I am the president and chief executive officer of the Quebec Council of Employers, the QCE.
Our organization, which was established in 1969, is a federation of nearly 100 sectoral associations and a number of corporate members that represents the interests of more than 70,000 private and parapublic employers of all sizes from all regions of Quebec.
Like the entire Canadian francophone population, Quebec employers are eager to promote French as a language of work, commerce, business and external business communication.
Our organization actively supports the efforts of Quebec employers striving to make French the language of work, commerce and business within their enterprises. For example, we have worked for many years with the Office québécois de la langue française, the OQLF, to promote French in the business sector. We have assisted in developing tools for employers, now consolidated under the title “Mémo, mon assistant pour la francisation”. We distribute those tools to our members with OQLF's help.
The approach that OQLF uses, which is based on self-evaluation, support and the provision of business tools, is consistent with the one we advocate for promoting the French language and encouraging companies to do business in French. We would obviously be pleased to be able to perform a similar role by cooperating with the Department of Canadian Heritage to support federally regulated businesses in their francization efforts both in Quebec and across Canada.
We believe that our language puts us in a privileged position to forge ties with other countries. Last August, QCE signed, on Quebec's behalf, the Paris declaration on strengthening the economic francophonie. The aim of that declaration is to create a privileged space, similar to the Commonwealth, for trade among francophone countries, as there are more than 300 million French speakers in the world. The goal is to increase business opportunities around the globe and to attract foreign businesses to Quebec. The francophonie also has considerable potential as a labour provider, since three quarters of the world's francophones will be less than 30 years old in 2060. In short, we believe that our language can become a springboard for our economic development.
Against this backdrop, QCE wishes to draw the federal government's attention to the support it could provide to the economic space of francophone and Acadian communities by promoting connections with employers in francophone and francophile countries.
We believe that, given the minority situation of the French fact in North America, the vitality of our language relies on stronger economic ties with other countries where French is the language of work. As the sole Canadian employers organization to sign the common Paris declaration, we also wish to offer our full cooperation and to make our expertise and network available to federal agencies and Canadian employers.
In closing, I would like to draw the committee's attention to two specific points.
We recently surveyed our members on the language question. Employers are generally in favour of protecting and promoting French as a language of work. A large majority recognize that our common language is fragile, particularly in Montreal, view French as a distinct cultural attribute and acknowledge that all businesses have a role to play in ensuring the vitality of our language. However, employers fear that statutory or regulatory measures may be introduced, without distinctions being drawn based on the size of businesses, that would increase red tape and be difficult to implement given the lack of resources for that purpose.
The second concern that employers expressed is that federally regulated businesses might eventually be compelled to meet the requirements of both the Official Languages Act and Quebec's Charter of the French Language. Employers should not be subject to two jurisdictions, a situation that would result in confusion and increased administrative processes.
Thank you for your attention.