Evidence of meeting #73 for Official Languages in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was businesses.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:45 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
So businesses can apply directly to your agency to request financial assistance in the form of a grant.
Is that right?
5:45 p.m.
Vice-President, Policy, Programs and Communications, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
That's right.
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Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
So there are businesses that come to see you. What is your success rate with businesses that belong to official language minority communities?
5:45 p.m.
Vice-President, Policy, Programs and Communications, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
For the targeted money that we have—the specific EDI funding of $5.5 million—we invested in 66 projects over five years. We leveraged a total of $18.7 million—that's getting funding from other partners as well—and assisted directly and indirectly over 500 businesses in the region.
Our success rate with the agency is generally very high. Our writeoff rate is less than 5%.
5:45 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Right.
Do you have examples of successes concerning businesses you have helped? Is there a list of those cases that businesses in the Maritime provinces can access?
5:45 p.m.
Vice-President, Policy, Programs and Communications, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
Are you asking about success stories?
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Vice-President, Policy, Programs and Communications, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
We have success stories on our website. For example—
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Conservative
5:45 p.m.
Vice-President, Policy, Programs and Communications, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
Yes, that is correct.
Certainly we share those with them.
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Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Thank you, Mr. Nowlan.
Mr. Perron, I am going to engage in more or less the same exercise with you concerning the budget.
In Quebec, in the official language minority communities, the businesses to which you grant funding are owned by anglophones, is that right?
5:45 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec
That is correct.
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Conservative
5:45 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec
Our normal investment fund is approximately $220 million per year. Those investments are granted to businesses or not-for-profit organizations, NPOs, for various economic development programs. We have a specific program for official languages, with a value of $1.8 million per year in financial contributions intended for NPOs and businesses.
5:45 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
So that is for official language minority communities.
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Deputy Minister, Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec
Yes. However, all of the programming is accessible to businesses and organizations in official language minority communities as it is to the rest of the businesses and organizations in the Quebec region.
5:45 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Could anglophone enterprises obtain all of the budget envelope that Economic Development Canada for the Regions of Quebec has? That is a hypothetical question.
5:50 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec
It would be hard to have that happen, in that our mandate is to operate in all regions of Quebec.
As a result, we place considerable importance, particularly in the devitalized regions, on being there to support projects that would otherwise not be created. We make sure that our actions are balanced.
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Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Could you give us an estimate of the proportions?
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Deputy Minister, Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec
I will give you an example.
As I was saying before, we have granted $220 million to base programs. Obviously, during the pandemic, there were additional roles, what we call special initiatives, but our base programming was about $220 million. Over a five-year period, we invested approximately $120 million in businesses led by anglophone entrepreneurs.
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Conservative
5:50 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec
Yes, it is $120 million—
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Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
Thank you, Mr. Perron. You can go into more detail later, but the member's speaking time is up.
Mr. Samson, you have the floor for six minutes.
5:50 p.m.
Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to the two witnesses for being here today to help us to understand the situation on the ground better.
Mr. Nowlan, I see you spell your first name differently from mine. That is interesting. There are so many ways of writing it.
I am first going to address a few items very quickly. I want to congratulate the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and the Economic Development Agency for rural regions. During the COVID‑19 pandemic, your support was exceptional and you helped businesses and communities enormously.
On the other hand, I have a memory that is a bit painful, one that dates back 50 years. I was very young at that time, and that gives you an idea of my age.
My father, who was a municipal councillor, had asked for business incubators. He did that for five years. He had to write to the newspapers in Quebec and Ottawa to get money, because the Acadian community never got funding. I know it has improved a lot, and I am going to ask my question with that in mind.
Listening to the presentation by the representative of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency earlier, I thought I understood that there was a database of francophone Acadian businesses in the Atlantic region. Is that true?
First, could we know what this business database is? Second, could we know the regions in which the businesses are located? Third, could we know what amounts have been received, by province and by region, so we can get a picture of the situation once we know how many businesses there are in each region?
You said earlier that there was an office in Meteghan or Clare, but there wasn't one in Cape Breton. In fact, there is one, but there are none in the Acadian region. I would like to know what businesses there are in each province and each region and how much money they were given in comparison with the other francophone businesses in each of the provinces. Would it be possible to send that information to the committee very quickly?
5:50 p.m.
Vice-President, Policy, Programs and Communications, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
Absolutely, Mr. Chair, we can certainly send that information to the clerk.
As I mentioned, we service the whole region, and we have officers situated everywhere. I mentioned some of the specific communities where we do have offices. Even in the places where we may not have a particular office—you mentioned the francophone region in Cape Breton, for example—obviously we have officers who would go to that region and serve that space.