The recommendation regarding the $40 million includes $10 million for infrastructure‑related initiatives, such as funding for Érudit. We developed three francophone missions programs. The whole concept of francophone missions stems from discussions that took place regarding the new umbrella organization. The government wanted the new umbrella organization to allocate funding to government missions, or missions for Canada. We consider that the francophonie is one of Canada's missions.
These three francophone missions would include, for example, a program of chairs of excellence on the Canadian francophonie. This would be a highly concrete measure to support research on the Canadian francophonie. Another program would fund independent projects on topics related to the francophonie. A third program would be used to create international teams. As you know, in our report, we state that French is a strategic resource for the Canadian government to promote its international visibility. The idea is to allocate $10 million to form teams consisting of a Quebec university, one or more universities from the Canadian francophonie and a university from the international francophone community. The overall goal is to strengthen the position of French within the international ecosystem.
This is part of another recommendation, which calls on the government to lead by example. We would like the Canadian government to adopt a science diplomacy policy to strengthen its presence within the international francophonie. This research program could support work on topics that matter to the francophonie on an international level.