Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.

I am pleased to be with you today to talk briefly about two of our recent studies that deal with the topic you are considering today. One of those studies, which was completed in 2012, if I recall correctly, deals with the economic situation of the Canadian francophonie. The second study, which was completed in 2013, deals more specifically with francophone and Acadian communities outside Quebec, or, in other words, in minority territory.

Though they were conducted quite recently, the two studies are based on data from the 2006 census. There would be work to be done, therefore, if we wanted to bring the results up to date, but they do allow us to draw some meaningful conclusions.

First of all, the French-speaking population of Canada, meaning those whose first language is French, is 6.9 million, or about 22% of the total population. Quebec has 5.9 million French-speakers, representing 80% of the population. That still leaves about 1,952,000 people outside Quebec whose first language is French. The two biggest groups are in Ontario, with 500,000 francophones, and New Brunswick, with 233,000.

We observed, however, that the economic impact of the francophone community is still very significant. Average salaries in francophone communities are higher than the average in those regions. Unemployment rates, in general, are lower than the average in each of the regions. There are some exceptions to that.

Overall, the direct economic position of francophones represents 19.5% of GDP, of the country's income. I remind you that these are 2006 figures. That is a little lower than the demographic position, because francophones represent 22% of the country's population. This is explained by the fact that the average salary is lower in Quebec than in Canada. Since there are more francophones in Quebec, that aspect is weaker. However, region by region, the francophone contribution tends to be greater that the contribution of the rest of the population.

The contribution to the overall GDP is about $252 billion. It is important to note that the economic contribution of francophones goes beyond the community. With Statistics Canada's help, we used the supply chain. That is not conventional but we wanted to see what the economic impact would be outside the francophone community. We found a multiplier that is quite significant. The economic contribution of the francophone community generates $130 billion in additional activity outside that community.

Let us quickly talk about the challenges.

We see that the francophone population is older than the national average. We already knew that for Quebec. However, a significant part of Quebec's population is under 25 years of age, representing 30% of the total population. That means that 30% of the population is still young, even though we know that Quebec is an aging province. This is still much better than the francophone population outside Quebec. If we look at youth outside Quebec, we see that Ontario has the youngest demographic, but 22% of the francophone population is under 24. In New Brunswick, the figure is 25%. Put another way, the other communities are aging a lot.

That goes some way to explain why the growth of the francophone population outside Quebec has been so weak. In fact, according to the 2001 and 2006 censuses, the francophone population outside Quebec has essentially remained stable; there has been no growth. Outside Quebec, the proportion of francophones has fallen from 4.2% to 4% of the total population. We must not forget that the vast majority of francophones live in Quebec and francophones represent 22% of the total population.

The second study that we submitted to you does not necessarily deal with the population in general, but with francophone and Acadian communities in minority situations outside Quebec. There again, there is quite a significant decline.

As a whole, the population of Canada grew by about 5.4% between the 2001 and 2006 censuses. It is important to observe, not only the total francophone population, but also the influence of communities that are principally francophone. The total population growth was only 1.7% in the 75 communities that were studied.

Employment growth is also weaker in communities located in the rest of Canada. Between the two censuses, we see a general growth of 9% in employment. But that percentage was only 6% for francophone and Acadian communities. In relative terms, therefore, that is a decline.

At the Conference Board, as well as personally, we recognize the importance of French. Its economic contribution goes beyond the borders of the francophone community. French also contributes to our cultural and national identity.

We believe that it is important that an effort be made to stabilize the influence of those francophone communities and the francophone population, especially outside Quebec.

Thank you.

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