I first want to thank you for having invited me to share my thoughts with your committee.

Like Anne, I am from New Brunswick. I grew up in a official language minority community. However, I sometimes felt that it was more an official language majority community, because I lived in the northeast of New Brunswick, with its significant francophone population.

That said, over the last 20 years, I have worked with communities all over Canada.

You have in your hands the text I prepared. I will start by reading it to you and by adding comments about some parts of the text. Basically, I am going to deal with three themes: the diverse nature of the francophonie, the entrepreneurial culture, and the competence of the labour force. In recent years, I have observed that those three themes are increasingly important in allowing our minority official language communities to develop and prosper.

Let us begin by talking about the diverse nature of the francophonie.

Basically, the minority francophone environment in our country is made up of approximately one million native French speakers. However, we feel that that francophone space is not limited only to native French speakers, but should also include other French speakers. According to data from the 2011 census, there are more than 1.6 million of these other French speakers in the provinces and territories outside Quebec.

These other French speakers, or francophiles, are immigrants from Europe or Africa in particular. Their first official languages is French, but they have another mother tongue aside from French. These individuals may also have learned French or improved their French-language skills as part of an interlinguistic couple, commonly known as exogamous couples. In some regions of the country, these couples represent up to 70% of families in minority communities. We estimate nevertheless that the impact of immersion schools throughout the country has been the main factor that has expanded this francophone space over the years.

In short, as I mentioned, if we include the other users of French, there are 2.6 million citizens in francophone minority communities.

This demographic evolution means that the francophone culture in minority communities is bound to change. However, we feel that the French language constitutes the main component of identity. In order to ensure its long-term survival in minority communities, we maintain that French must be fostered in a broader environment, not only in schools and in the home. The French language must be used in an environment that includes the other French users, that is to say the anglophones who speak French, as well as these new francophone Canadians with their particular history and respective cultural traits. Most of them want to contribute and enrich the francophone space in our country. We must welcome them.

I acknowledge that I have had unique experiences in some areas, particularly in Atlantic Canada. I am thinking about Prince Edward Island, as one example. I felt that trying to get first-language francophones and francophiles to work together was sometimes a challenge. It is not that francophones object to it, but they have a little difficulty, perhaps because of their history, in opening up to this new francophonie. That is what I have noticed. However, as the previous witness mentioned, our minority francophone population is aging and we have to open ourselves to this new francophonie.

Take Prince Edward Island. According to the data in the 2011 census, there are 5,600 people whose first language is French. However, there are probably more than 11,500 francophiles, meaning anglophones or allophones who, in the last census, replied that they could carry on a conversation in French. So we see that the island's francophone space goes from 5,600 people whose first language is French to more than 17,000 francophiles who can use French.

We find the same scenario in other provinces and territories. Take Ontario, for example; it has more than 561,000 people whose first language is French. However, in the last census, more than 850,000 Ontarians replied that they could carry on a conversation in French. The francophone space can therefore be calculated at 1.4 million people who can use French in Ontario.

The last example is Newfoundland and Labrador. Between 2006 and 2011, statistics show an increase in the number of people whose first language is French. The province's economic boom is probably a contributing factor. We have gone from about 2,200 or 2,300 people whose first language is French to 3,000. However, according to Statistics Canada, there are probably more than 23,000 French users in Newfoundland and Labrador.

So you can see that, when we talk about the diverse nature of the francophonie, we are not just counting people whose first language is French, but others in the community who can speak French. Like it or not, it all has economic repercussions.

From an economic perspective, these other French speakers are essential in terms of entrepreneurial new blood and the labour force. They can also build bridges between various markets in Canada and abroad. Because of their origins, we believe that these other French speakers can create links among multiple markets, without being limited only to those of our national francophonie and the international one

For all of those reasons, we submit that government action in minority environments must foster the integration of these other French speakers.

That is the first point I wanted to highlight for you. At the end of my presentation, I will provide you with three recommendations, on of which comes back to this point.

Now I would like to talk about entrepreneurial culture.

I have been in business for more than 20 years. For 10 or so years, I was an employee of RDÉE Canada, but, at the same time, I always had my own businesses. I noticed certain things, including in my own family. Some of my cousins or uncles were in business. Over the years, I realized that fewer and fewer of them wanted to start a company. I believe that entrepreneurship is needed for a community to develop, whether the language is English or French.

I came across a Business Development Bank of Canada report, released in 2012, that revealed a gradual decline in entrepreneurial performance in Canada. In short, the entrepreneurship rate has been stagnating or in decline in our country since 2005. Minority francophone communities are not immune to that trend. The stagnation, and particularly the fact that Canadians are less interested in going into business, seems to me to be somewhat of a concern.

Consequently, it seems essential to us that additional efforts be deployed over the coming years to give young people, and those less young, a taste for going into business. Baby boomer entrepreneurs are gradually retiring, leaving businesses in their wake that are closing their doors for lack of someone to take them over. The situation is making certain communities even more fragile. In the west of Canada, and in the east, I have seen businesses with no one to take them over. If they are taken over, it is by anglophones or immigrants. If they are not, they simply shut their doors. That has a significant effect on our communities. It is a reality that we need to consider.

In addition, we believe that the self-employment enterprise model must be reinforced and supported. Whether in Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan, Pointe-de-l'Église, Nova Scotia, Casselman in eastern Ontario or Iqaluit in Nunavut, technology provides access to markets, and potential clients throughout the world. That business model allows for flexible schedules and a work-family balance that is increasingly sought after. Of course, you have to have a taste for the entrepreneurial adventure: you have to dive in and be persistent.

At one point, I came across some interesting statistics about Quebec. According to those statistics, 500,000 Quebeckers are self-employed. I am one of them, and I can tell you that, in my opinion, it is important for the government to support this form of entrepreneurship.

Moreover, the organizations in minority environments play a major role in the development of our communities. Whether they are active in the cultural arena, in education, health, or economic development, they all, in their particular areas, have an impact on the communities' economy. Cultural organizations or enterprises showcase our talents and cultural specificity, thus enriching our tourist sector. Those who work in education train the workers of tomorrow. A labour force that is healthy and well will better meet the needs of the workplace.

In that spirit, we believe that we must better support the creativity of community leaders by giving them the tools not only to diversify their funding sources for their respective organizations, but also to optimize their impact in our communities. Just like private entrepreneurs, the contribution of these community leaders is essential to the economic development of the communities.

The competence of the labour force is the third topic I would like to discuss with you.

The challenge of the labour shortage in Canada is not only about a physical lack of employees. It also means that a certain part of the population cannot access the labour market, and thus meet the needs of employers, because of the significant lack of basic skills.

Employment and Social Development Canada has determined that a worker must have nine fundamental skills to integrate the labour market and contribute to it adequately. These skills, or knowledge, that are at the basis for learning all of the other skills, include reading, writing, knowing how to consult documents, and so on.

To these basic skills must be added some generic skills, or self-management skills, and some specialized or technical skills, or know-how. An employee should have 22 generic skills. In a job offer, these are also does often described as “required qualifications” or “other professional skills”. As for specialized or technical skills, there are many, and they vary according to the job.

In addition, the way in which young people see the labour market and their expectations vis-à-vis employers are also responsible for an evolution in the organization of work. We believe that a certain category of employer needs support in order to learn new ways of doing things and new labour market practices and to adapt to them, whether they are flexible schedules, for instance, or ways of guiding and supporting their employees. That adaptation is all the more necessary in the context of a labour shortage. I find that this aspect is very important. At the moment, we have people in the labour market who do not have the same concept of work as older generations did. Something special needs to be done in that situation; we need to provide entrepreneurs with support so that the influx of young workers into the job market is properly integrated.

Let me conclude by telling you that my three recommendations are in the document. In a nutshell, they deal with an openness to a diverse francophonie, with an entrepreneurial culture, and with the competence of the workforce, an area where there is a need to assist employers more, including when integrating employees into the company.

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