Official Languages committee  It should be noted from the outset that the Conseil canadien de la coopération et de la mutualité is honestly unable to evaluate the impact of the current Roadmap as the cooperatives were unable to be partners in the Roadmap's implementation. We argued in favour of including a major economic development component in the current Roadmap, but our recommendation went unheeded.

Finance committee  There are currently 1,300 farm cooperatives in Canada—this only concerns agriculture. All those cooperatives support this request, that it be done at the federal level. In Quebec, the cooperatives obviously understand that, once this kind of plan is in place at the federal level, Quebec will conduct a review so that it can align itself with all the other provinces.

Finance committee  No, we're really asking that the federal government take charge of this so that it has the same effect across Canada. Our agricultural problems within the cooperatives are the same across Canada; we're applying the same formula and we would like to be able—

Finance committee  That's it.

Finance committee  Lastly, Mr. Rajotte, I would like to tell you that we have provided a full set of research documents that have been prepared on the CIP in Quebec.

Finance committee  Committee members, thank you for welcoming us this morning and for allowing us to present our recommendations for the next federal budget. First, I do not necessarily want to read what you have received. I am sure you have done your homework. What I would like to be able to do is to give some context for the importance of cooperatives across Canada, provide you with three recommendations and put the emphasis on major investment to establish a cooperative investment system across Canada.

Industry committee  The cooperative world has suffered losses in the manufacturing and agriculture sectors, and over the last couple of years, also in the forestry sector. As a result, there's been an increase in other hot sectors such as environment, the energy sector, and the health care services delivery sector.

Industry committee  I'd like to add something. We have gotten an undertaking from the federal government that it would take the necessary steps to renew this program, in its current form, for one year. However, we haven't received any official document concerning this commitment. We don't know what the renewal action plan will look like.

Industry committee  In Quebec, the Fédération québécoise des coopératives forestières is conducting a great deal of research and development in value-added sectors, in other words forest-derived products which may eventually be useful in setting up forestry cooperatives. And this is in addition to what is currently occurring in the Prairies.

Industry committee  I think so, yes.

Industry committee  The Conseil canadien de la coopération has no official stance regarding that type of business practice. However, I think you should ask the people from Desjardins what they think. In the case of Desjardins, the problem isn't really what you call mergers in English, but rather the ability to provide services to communities which are deteriorating because of a lack of services in French.

Industry committee  That's possible, but clearly we're looking for a department which is able to represent the current diversity among cooperatives. We're not only limited to agriculture: we represent every sector. You need to understand that if you're talking about health care cooperatives with people from the Department of Agriculture, given that department's mandate, the reception is not going to be nearly as warm as in another department.

Industry committee  To begin with, I'd like to thank the members of the committee for having invited the Conseil canadien de la coopération to come and present on the impact of French-language cooperatives on the services sector in Canada. The Conseil canadien de la coopération is a tier-four national organization representing cooperatives.