Thank you, Mr. Chair.
And I'd like to thank the three witnesses too.
Ms. Arbez, thank you for the work you've been doing in Manitoba. It's very important and I would encourage you to continue with your efforts.
Mr. Afane, I've been lucky enough to visit Yellowknife. Thank you for your additional details on the action plan we launched last year by adding $1.1 billion. Funding for the action plan has doubled since 2015. Thank you very much for the work you've been doing.
My first question is for Mr. Gauthier.
First of all, Mr. Gauthier, thank you for the work you've been doing as the Conseil scolaire du Grand Nord's director of education, and for your current work as the chair of the Greater Sudbury ACFO board of directors. Our congratulations also go to Joanne Gervais for the colossal work she's been doing every day in the Greater Sudbury area with her team of volunteers.
Thank you for your website, which provides information to the Greater Sudbury community, whose population is 170,000. My riding, Nickel Belt, is 49% bilingual, if the surrounding regions are included. With the exception of Mr. Drouin's riding, Nickel Belt is the most bilingual riding in Ontario.
I liked your earlier comments, because the University of Sudbury is extremely important as an economic driver for the region, "for, by and with" francophones. You said that every dollar invested by the federal government and the provincial government will be worth about eight dollars in terms of its impact on the economy.
Can you tell us more about the importance of having a university?
We have our school boards. I was a trustee on the Conseil scolaire catholique du Nouvel-Ontario. We have Collège Boréal. I worked at Collège Boréal.
We need our university network in the mid-north now, because what we're talking about is local economic development.