Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Members of the Standing Committee on Official Languages. My name is Daryell Nowlan and I am the Vice President of Policy, Programs and Communications at the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, or ACOA.
I am pleased to join you in person here in Ottawa and respectfully acknowledge that we are on the traditional unceded territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin nation.
Thank you for the invitation to appear today. I'm happy to be here to speak to you about what ACOA does on the ground with respect to official-language minority communities.
For more than 35 years, the agency has worked with Acadian and French-speaking businesses, organizations, and communities in the four Atlantic provinces. One of our greatest strengths is our presence throughout the Atlantic region.
We have employees working directly in offices located in over 30 communities around Atlantic Canada, ranging from our larger cities to small, rural, coastal and remote communities. We're proud to be a leader in providing services to entrepreneurs in communities in both official languages.
Our offices located in bilingual regions for language of work are all of our offices in New Brunswick, including our head office in Moncton, as well as our small office that we have here in Ottawa. We have established offices directly in francophone and Acadian communities throughout the region: for example, Wellington in P.E.I., Pointe-de-l'Église in Nova Scotia, and Edmundston and Campbellton in New Brunswick.
One way that ACOA successfully supports entrepreneurs in official-language minority communities is by being more accessible and visible. That is why, wherever possible, our staff are co-located with other economic development organizations in these communities. This type of partnership allows for entrepreneurs in Acadian and francophone communities in Atlantic Canada to be made aware of the full suite of programs that are available to them to help them grow their businesses, and they can have that service in French.
For example, in the southwest region of Nova Scotia, two agency employees share offices with the Corporation for the Benefit of Community Development, the Economic Development and Employability Network, or RDEE Canada, the Nova Scotia Economic Development Council, and the Nova Scotia at Work employment services centers.
The agency works closely with these partners to identify priorities and opportunities that might exist, and they bring all of their services together in a bit of a one-stop shop.
Through our regular programming, including the business development program and the regional economic growth through innovation program, the agency helps small and medium-sized businesses become more competitive, innovative and productive. We also work with communities to identify growth opportunities and investment initiatives that lead to long-term jobs through our innovative communities fund.
In addition, in recent years, the agency has implemented the economic development initiative, a component of Canada's Action Plan for Official Languages 2018‑2023.
The EDI, as we've talked about previously, represents $6.2 million over five years to support things like tourism, innovation, productivity improvement, market and trade development, and francophone immigration projects with francophone and Acadian communities.
Over the last 18 months, ACOA, in addition to the EDI, has approved 1,250 projects in francophone communities for over $211 million. For example, we've done projects with la Société acadienne et francophone de l'Île‑du‑Prince‑Édouard and Horizon TNL to provide support for francophone immigration services.
Last April, ACOA also announced an investment of $1.6 million for the IMPACT project, led by the four RDEEs in the Atlantic, the Centre québécois de développement durable, and RDEE Canada. This project aims to increase the performance and competitiveness of businesses and organizations in French-speaking and Acadian communities in the Atlantic provinces by helping them better position themselves in the face of new market and societal expectations in terms of sustainability.
The agency remains committed to creating more diversified and inclusive communities, and to solidifying economic development efforts that benefit all Atlantic Canadian communities.
Mr. Chair, members of the committee, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about the role of the Atlantic Opportunities Agency of Canada in the development of official language minority communities in Atlantic Canada.
I'll be happy to take your questions.