Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
My name is Pierre-Marcel Desjardins. I'm a professor of economics at the Université de Moncton. I've worn other hats, including that of chair of the board of RDEE Canada for two years.
I'd like to submit four points to you.
Firstly, it often happens in economics that we don't give enough importance to what we might call transaction costs. Language is one element. There is geographical proximity, historical proximity, but also cultural proximity, including language. According to forecasts on the growth of the world's French-speaking population, the proportion of the world's francophone population is becoming increasingly important, mainly because of what is happening in Africa.
Secondly, when we need access to a workforce, sometimes the statistic we refer to is mother tongue—this is often an important point for companies. Alberta, for example, has 79,000 native French speakers, but 260,000 people who can speak French. When it comes to economic development, it's often just as important to look at the ability to converse in French when we do our analysis.
Thirdly, when we talk about bilingualism or the French fact—I have the New Brunswick context in mind in many of my references—we often get the impression that it's the bilingual people, mainly the francophones, who benefit. I'm referring here to what are commonly known as call centres or customer contact centres. In general, in New Brunswick, the percentage of the workforce that is unilingual English-speaking, i.e., speaks only English, is 56%. However, in customer contact centres, this percentage is 66%.
Remember that when you call a toll-free number, you're told to press 1 if you want to speak French and 2 if you want to speak English. Technology directs calls to the right place. Unilingual English speakers benefit from the presence of the French-speaking community and bilingualism.
Finally, fourthly, in my studies, particularly in Atlantic Canada and more specifically in New Brunswick, when you look at the averages, it may seem that the francophone community is perhaps underperforming economically. However, when you look at the situation in individual counties, francophones are generally more successful than their anglophone fellow residents in the same county. In fact, francophones are mostly concentrated in rural areas, while anglophones are mostly concentrated in urban settings.
I heard testimony from the two people who appeared before me. When we talk about public policy, it's extremely important to have policies that encourage rural development, because that's where francophones are concentrated. Often, when people move to more urban environments, mainly for economic and financial reasons, the rate of assimilation increases.
Among the targeted programs, we can think of early childhood, whose services should be offered in French. They shouldn't even be bilingual, but in French. We need schools, government services, arts and culture services in French. All the French-language services we're able to bring to rural areas contribute to the growth of francophone minority communities, some of which are often concentrated in more rural areas.
Thank you.
