Official Languages committee  That's exactly it. There were national consultations on the Roadmap. We appeared in all the regions. We took steps to do it, but they really didn't produce any results.

Official Languages committee  I was told the Roadmap could not solve all the problems of the minority communities. Consequently, a cooperative economic development was viewed as not that important.

Official Languages committee  May I ask a question?

Official Languages committee  The presentation of the Conseil canadien de la coopération et de la mutualité contains a recommendation that a national issue table be established to develop a coherent national action plan. I believe that dialogue among all the departments concerned regarding investment in the e

Official Languages committee  We pleaded with the committee to include an extremely important economic component in the last Roadmap, one that reflected the cooperative model, among other things. This is a tool that has always been used in the minority communities. In our view, it was important to get the coo

Official Languages committee  That's true; I had forgotten. However, we were simply not heard.

Official Languages committee  We were told we couldn't solve all the problems at the same time.

Official Languages committee  That's why we're here.

Official Languages committee  We are so busy with requests for consulting and cooperative development services that our objective was not necessarily to lobby various departments to get that point of view across. Instead our purpose was to get ourselves recognized and to be there. So we attended certain meeti

Official Languages committee  Yes, I'm going to hand over to my colleague.

Official Languages committee  Yes.

Official Languages committee  I believe the cooperative model has two purposes: an economic purpose and a social purpose. In economic development, it is very profitable, as you saw from the description of the movement as a whole, but it is also very profitable socially because it gives the community cohesion.

Official Languages committee  May I make one? It will be very simple.

Official Languages committee  I've lived in western Canada for 10 years, in a particularly anglophone community. I was the francophone. I frankly have to admit that what attached me to my community was Radio-Canada. No other media outlet did that. As an individual—I'm not speaking on behalf of the council—tha

Official Languages committee  The Roadmap is doing nothing for us. The cooperatives have been excluded from the group of main players in the economic development of the francophone and Acadian communities. We receive funding from a little program of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, in addition to funding fro