Thank you for this opportunity. I hope to be as effective as Mr. Desjardins.
My name is Kenneth Deveau and I am the executive director of the Conseil de développement économique de la Nouvelle-Écosse. I have a doctorate in education from the Université de Moncton. I was vice-rector of Université Sainte-Anne, as well as director and founder of Invest Nova Scotia, of which I was also vice-chair and chair. Recently, I completed the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program. So I've gone from education at the beginning of my career, to economic development. Today, I'm going to try to make the connection between these two fields, share my thoughts with you, and perhaps make some suggestions.
Basically, we're talking about the vitality of our official language minority communities, or OLMCs. A community's vitality is defined by its ability to maintain itself as a distinct entity and to flourish within that context, and it can be summed up in three points: the status of the group, its language and culture, its institutional completeness and, of course, demographic factors. The latter receives much of our attention, but they are often the consequence of the other two factors.
Let's talk about status first. In economics, the language of business is English, whether in our communities, nationally or internationally. I've listened to the previous testimony. However, there are areas where French has a special status, and we should focus more on these areas when it comes to commercial exchanges for our communities. I'm thinking in particular of Quebec. Could we promote more trade between Baie Sainte-Marie and Quebec, for example? Are there specific domains where we could do more? It would be better to work in areas of endeavour that are already established, rather than trying to create new ones. I'm thinking in particular of culture and education. You've already talked about institutions and explored the question of education. Education, from pre-school to post-secondary, is an important factor contributing to the economic development and vitality of our communities. This has been studied extensively.
On the economic front, I'll focus on post-secondary education, to keep it brief. In Nova Scotia, after seafood products like fish and lobster especially, the export product that brings in the most revenue is post-secondary education. Université Sainte-Anne plays a major role in this. In Nova Scotia, foreign students are very important to the francophone economy. They represent more than just tuition fees. They're also a skilled workforce for our entrepreneurs and customers for our businesses. What's more, education is a gateway to international markets, whether in Europe, the Maghreb or sub-Saharan Africa. This is under-exploited, and I'm convinced there's a role for the Conseil de développement économique de la Nouvelle‑Écosse to play here. There are under-exploited opportunities that we need to explore further.
Finally, I'll address the demographic issue, which is very important. Mobility means we're losing our young people, and that's a double loss. They're leaving our regions, like Madawaska—as you know, Mr. Arseneault—to pursue post-secondary education. We're losing not only our young people, but also the future leaders of our communities. The best and the brightest leave us and often don't come back. How can we bring them back? Before, we were looking to develop businesses. Now, given flexible working patterns, there may be more opportunities to explore.
We've also talked about immigration here at this committee. Francophone immigration is one of the priorities of the Canadian francophonie, the Government of Canada and the governments of certain provinces. Later, I'd like to tell you about a project of the Conseil de développement économique de la Nouvelle-Écosse, concerning St. Mary's Bay. I'll use this project to venture to make some recommendations when you ask me questions.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to answering your questions.