Mr. Speaker, Gilbert Bossé, a financier from Val-d'Or, wants to create a mini investment fund in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue to channel regional savings of $750 million into a local business start-up or development investment fund.
Project Frontenac, which Mr. Bossé hopes will be in operation in January, with an initial capital of $25 to $30 million, is designed to compensate for the imbalance that gives the five resource regions that make up 16% of the population less than 10% of start-up capital in Quebec.
The project is one of nine initiatives to promote economic development in resource regions that were presented at the Sommet des régions in Quebec City last November.
According to Jacques Talbot, the president of Val-d'Or's chamber of commerce, many other regions are already eyeing Project Frontenac with interest. He says that the fund will help new companies that require an investment of between $500,000 and $10 million to start up, businesses that are presently being neglected by Canadian financial institutions.