Official Languages Committee on Nov. 29th, 2023

[Stephen Traynor]

That's a great question.

We work directly with the three associations. In particular, we often have ongoing conversations between them and our economic development officers in the north. We also participate in official-languages discussions in the territories about what is needed and how we can work collaboratively. We also work with each entrepreneur in the northern territories. We're very fortunate that we have people on the ground to be able to have those conversations and to be in constant communication.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Joël Godin]

You have 15 seconds left.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

All right.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Joël Godin]

Thank you, Mr. Iacono.

That concludes the first part of the meeting.

I would like to thank Mr. Traynor, from the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, and Mr. Kapoor and Ms. LeBel, from Prairies Economic Development Canada.

I would remind you that, if you have any information you wish to forward to the committee so we can prepare a better report, please contact the clerk. She will be pleased to pass it on to us.

We will suspend in order to welcome our next witnesses.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Joël Godin]

Good evening, everyone.

We will resume where we left off, but with two new groups of witnesses.

We have with us Mr. Fabiano, representing the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario, and Ms. Cousineau, who is vice-president for business innovation and community development at the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario.

Thank you for being with us.

Each of you will have five minutes to deliver your opening remarks. Then the members will be free to ask you questions.

We will begin with Mr. Fabiano.

[Nick Fabiano, Vice President, Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Nick Fabiano and I am the vice-president of policy and communications at the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario, better known as FedNor.

I welcome the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the work that FedNor does to support the economic development of official language minority communities.

First of all, I want to acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe nation. I would like to thank the members of the first nation for welcoming us on their ancestral territories.

Prior to being established as a standalone agency in 2021, FedNor had operated as a branch within Industry Canada since 1987. Our mandate was and continues to be the promotion of economic growth, diversification, job creation and sustainable communities in the region.

Our region is home to approximately 840,000 residents, roughly 6% of the population of Ontario. It also includes some 110,000 francophones, who represent 13% of the region's population, and nearly 20% of Ontario's francophones. Our region is also home to 105 first nation communities and 150 municipalities, most of which have a population of 2,000 or less.

FedNor has approximately 100 employees, more than 90% of whom are located in six offices across northern Ontario. Our presence in Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins, Kenora and North Bay allows the agency to work directly with businesses and to collaborate with partners across the region to grow northern Ontario's economy.

Recognizing that communities are important economic drivers. FedNor targets its support to help create the conditions necessary for economic growth and development.

By supporting community economic development capacity, FedNor is empowering communities to take advantage of growth opportunities that arise. This is where FedNor support can have a positive impact by helping them create jobs, expand entrepreneurship, attract investment and develop a skilled and bilingual workforce to foster growth.

FedNor also works with other government departments, as well as national and regional stakeholders, to further the business and economic development that encourages growth in the region’s francophone communities. Recent activities include providing support to local rural and northern immigration pilot communities to build their capacity to facilitate newcomer attraction, integration and retention, including French-speaking and bilingual newcomers.

Through its core programming, such as the northern Ontario development program and the regional economic growth through innovation fund, FedNor makes targeted investments to build stronger communities and to help businesses scale up.

Support for businesses and entrepreneurs is also available through our community futures development corporations. The community futures program supports 24 CFDCs in northern Ontario, 12 of which receive incremental funding to ensure they are able to provide services in both official languages, as they serve communities that have significant francophone populations.

Finally, FedNor provides targeted support to official-language minority communities in the region through the Government of Canada’s economic development initiative. Since November 2015, FedNor has contributed approximately $6.4 million, or $800,000 a year, through the EDI program, toward 43 projects that assisted businesses and organizations in capitalizing on economic opportunities.

In addition to the economic development initiative, FedNor’s other core programs support businesses and communities throughout northern Ontario, including those that belong to, or form part of, official-language minority communities. The northern Ontario development program and the regional economic growth through innovation program have invested $63 million in 134 official-language minority community projects since November 2015, which represents 19% of our total funding provided by these programs.

To elaborate further, I would be happy to take your questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Joël Godin]

You're very good, Mr. Fabiano: you completed your remarks in exactly five minutes.

Ms. Cousineau will now face the same challenge.

You have the floor for five minutes, Ms. Cousineau.

[Linda Cousineau, Vice-President, Business Innovation and Community Development, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario]

Thank you.

Good evening, Mr. Chair and distinguished members of the committee.

My name is Linda Cousineau. I am the vice-president of business innovation and community development for the federal economic development agency for southern Ontario.

I want to start by recognizing that I'm joining you from Waterloo, which is the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinabe and Haudenosaunee people.

Thank you for the invitation to appear before the Standing Committee on Official Languages. I am pleased to be here to share the work that FedDev Ontario is doing to support southern Ontario's official language minority communities.

Southern Ontario is home to the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec, and the needs of our OLMCs are diverse. Eastern Ontario is home to well-established communities and ecosystems around Ottawa and Cornwall. To the west, the communities are proportionally smaller and more dispersed. Cities such as Toronto and Hamilton have growing francophone populations, in part fuelled by immigration.

FedDev Ontario leverages its regional footprint to connect with these communities and the knowledge gained informs investments in community capacity building, economic development, entrepreneurship and business growth.

We also engage officials from FedNor to address province-wide issues and provide cohesive support for all of Ontario's francophone communities.

FedDev Ontario recently relaunched its economic development initiative, which is a component of Canada's Action Plan for Official Languages 2023‑2028. Over the next five years the agency will deliver $4 million in support.

This initiative aims to support OLMCs by strengthening the rich cultural fabric of francophone communities, while accelerating economic growth within these communities. It enables financial support for projects that encourage economic diversification, business development, innovation, and partnerships. It also provides support for small and medium-sized businesses in OLMCs.

For example, Collège La Cité received $1.79 million over four years to support francophone businesses and entrepreneurship. La Cité delivered training and workshops, as well as collaborated with businesses on applied research to support innovation and product development.

In addition to this dedicated program, FedDev Ontario also helps small and medium-sized businesses owned by francophones become more productive, innovative and competitive. It supports entrepreneurship in these communities through its regional and national programs, including the community futures program and the Black entrepreneurship program.

For example, through the Black entrepreneurship program's ecosystem fund, the Mouvement Ontarien des femmes immigrantes francophones is receiving a non-repayable contribution of up to $1.7 million. With this support, the organization is providing access for Black entrepreneurs and Black-led businesses to advisory services, mentorship, networking events, coaching, the International Black Economic Forum, and an entrepreneurial boot camp, as well as introductions to potential partners and investors to help them start and/or grow their business.

Projects like these are supporting francophone entrepreneurs such as Angèle Adoté, founder, owner and operator of Dûnu Donuts in Ottawa, which is a street food and doughnut business that is bringing African cultural food to new audiences.

FedDev Ontario has also made investments that support and promote francophone tourism and cultural offerings of our official-language minority communities through programs like the tourism relief fund and the Canada community revitalization fund.

FedDev Ontario will continue making investments to support jobs and promote the economic growth of francophone businesses. It will continue its work to build an economy in southern Ontario that is inclusive and promotes the vitality of its official-language minority communities.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share FedDev Ontario's role in economic and community development for official-language minority communities.

I'm pleased to answer your questions.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Joël Godin]

Thank you, Ms. Cousineau.

You used a little less time than your colleague. You still had 30 seconds left.

We will now begin the first round of questions.

Mr. Dalton, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Marc Dalton, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to the witnesses.

My first questions are for Mr. Fabiano.

Many students make the decision to live and study in northern Ontario. I'm thinking, for example, of the students at Laurentian University.

What kinds of programs are being introduced in northern Ontario to enable that region to retain young talent?

[Nick Fabiano]

That's an excellent question.

As we said, we are short of young people in northern Ontario, and it's very important to keep young people in our region.

At FedNor, we're introducing education programs in conjunction with the schools, but we're also supporting institutions in the field of innovation.

We will work with innovation centres in the different universities and colleges to create an opportunity for new entrepreneurs, to work with those individuals and to keep them there.

Incidentally, FedNor does a lot of work with the five communities targeted by the rural and northern immigration pilot program to attract new workers and newcomers to northern Ontario.

[Marc Dalton, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

Thank you.

What is the percentage of bilingual positions in your organization?

[Nick Fabiano]

As I just indicated, we have 100 positions at FedNor, 55 of which are designated bilingual. However, since we have a lot of employees in the north, particularly in Sudbury, we have more bilingual positions than that. So we have at least 55 bilingual employees.

[Marc Dalton, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

How many of those 55 employees provide services directly to the public?

[Nick Fabiano]

Most of those people provide services directly to the public. Since we are a small organization, we don't have a lot of managers or executives. Consequently, most of the 55 bilingual positions are occupied by people who work with citizens in the region.

[Marc Dalton, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

When you say there are few administrative positions and more services, that's music to my ears.

What's the process that an entrepreneur has to go through to secure federal government funding?

[Nick Fabiano]

It's very simple. We have a process for entrepreneurs and businesses seeking support. As I said, we have two programs: the northern Ontario development program and the regional economic growth through innovation program. You just have to submit an application. You can do that at any time, not just in three months out of the year. We always accept applications.

We first determine whether every application meets program requirements. For example, the project must be located in northern Ontario and stimulate economic development. We determine funding amounts based on that.

I would add that most of our funding goes to communities and organizations that assist entrepreneurs because the money we allocate directly to entrepreneurs has to be repaid to us a few years later.

[Marc Dalton, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

How much time does it normally take to file an application and receive the funding?

[Nick Fabiano]

Once the application is in our system, it has to go through two stages. First, we have to determine whether it meets program requirements. Then we request financial documents. From that point, our service standard is to reach a decision within 80 days.

[Marc Dalton, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

I see. That's good.

You just partly answered my next question. What requirements does an entrepreneur have to meet?

[Nick Fabiano]

It really depends on the program that—

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Joël Godin]

Pardon me for interrupting, Mr. Fabiano, but I just want to advise Mr. Dalton that he has 30 seconds left.

[Nick Fabiano]

I see.

It really depends on each program. For an innovation program, you have to show that the project will have an impact on the growth of the business. You have to show that it's something new that will increase the business's production. So it really depends on the program you've applied for.

[Marc Dalton, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

All right.

Is my time up, Mr. Chair?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Joël Godin]

Yes, it is.

Thank you, Mr. Dalton and Mr. Fabiano.

Mr. Serré, you now have the floor for six minutes.