Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to thank the committee for the opportunity to testify and contribute to your study, which I feel is very important.
My name is Marie-Eve Michon. I am the director of the Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité du Nouveau-Brunswick, the New Brunswick RDEE, which was founded in 2000. You've met with a number of our counterparts over the course of your study, so I won't try to reinvent the wheel. We create and support strategies and initiatives that meet the economic development needs of francophone and Acadian communities in order to contribute to New Brunswick's economy, among other things.
The New Brunswick RDEE has 19 employees and two offices, one in Paquetville, a rural community in northern New Brunswick, and another in Moncton, an urban setting.
We focus on economic development, which includes entrepreneurship, business takeovers by women and sustainable development; and employability, which includes economic immigration and skills development.
I would like to share an overview of some of the New Brunswick RDEE's flagship projects to give you an idea of what we do, the scope of our projects and how we connect with communities in all the ways I just mentioned.
The New Brunswick RDEE spearheads Impact, a program that helps francophone businesses in all four Atlantic provinces take steps toward sustainable development. We're all working together to help these businesses adopt greener, more sustainable practices.
Innover par l’amélioration des processus is another project designed to support businesses by helping them become more productive and competitive. We provide non-repayable financial assistance of up to $50,000 per business to help boost productivity and ensure longevity. The program is ending on March 31. We've helped 31 francophone businesses benefit from this program, and 77% of them are in the manufacturing sector.
Solution Repreneuriat is a program that helps women who want to buy an existing business. We do a lot to support start-ups, but we also wanted to provide support for takeovers. We know that women who want to buy a business don't face the same challenges as men. This program was set up with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada under the leadership of the New Brunswick RDEE. It includes the four Atlantic provinces and Saskatchewan. It has been running in New Brunswick for three years and has helped 200 women, 97 of whom have received personalized coaching to help them through the process of buying a company from start to finish.
Our Mode d'emploi program is designed to support newcomers and permanent residents by helping them learn about the characteristics of Canada's labour market generally and New Brunswick's in particular. So far this year, our small team has supported 280 clients and delivered 400 employability services, including webinars, workshops and training.
In closing, I should say that we're funded by the Enabling Fund for Official Language Minority Communities, which is crucial to delivering francophone services and initiatives in New Brunswick. This funding provides tremendous leverage because it enables us to secure other opportunities and funds. For example, over the past five years, the New Brunswick RDEE has worked with 2,800 partners. We've used our own funding to leverage $12 million in cash and $4 million in kind, benefiting over 70,000 recipients in New Brunswick with 255 projects.
We're very excited about the new $208-million fund for employment assistance services. I look forward to seeing what happens next. We are very much looking forward to working together, as this will enable us to accomplish even more with our projects.