Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

To make you feel better, I would like to tell you that it will be 28 degrees in Manitoba today. That is plus 28, not minus 28.

I had prepared a text, but, given the limited time I have, I am going to wing it, in order to explain the situation in Manitoba, in western Canada.

First, I will give you a bit of history about the Economic Development Council for Manitoba Bilingual Municipalities, the CDEM.

Our organization is part of Canada's great RDÉE family. We have been working in bilingual municipalities since 1996. To fully understand the concept of bilingual municipalities, you have to understand that our territory has been quite well defined in all the regions of Manitoba where francophone populations are to be found. Luckily for us, our population is quite concentrated geographically, with a critical mass close to the city of Winnipeg. I myself come from St. Laurent, a small French-speaking Metis community on Lake Manitoba that was flooded in 2011. It is also awaiting the return of its exhibition, now in the Smithsonian in Washington. They have been putting off returning our artifacts for two years; it is the most popular exhibition in the museum that Mr. Cardinal built.

Aside from the economic issues, we have the whole question of the economic viability of our communities and our OLMCs. I am going to deal with that in my presentation because sometimes, in a climate of prosperity, it has an impact and can make for surprises in development terms.

I often compare the CDEM to an organization like the Franciscans. We exist to serve and to help. We count on the support from 14 community business development corporation (CDCs) working in 17 bilingual municipalities. Those who know Manitoba reasonably well know that the Red River rises in the United States and flows into Lake Winnipeg. Thirty per cent of the francophone population lives in that corridor. Fifty per cent of the francophone population lives in Winnipeg, but not all in St. Norbert, St. Vital and Saint Boniface. Some also live on the other side of the river.

There are also areas that are a little more remote, like St-Georges and Powerview-Pine Falls. The latter is a resource area that lost its paper mill ten years ago or so; its economic development is fragile. In St. Laurent, the quite unique Metis community I mentioned earlier, the climate is pretty ideal. It is cottage country, with fishing in the lake, agriculture and a meat packing plant. St. Lazare, near the border with Saskatchewan, has the advantage of its proximity to Rocanvillle, where there is a large potash mine and a red-hot economy from the oil in the Bakken. The growth there looks a lot like the resource regions of Saskatchewan and Alberta. It is a real boom situation, with full employment.

Aside from the geography and the CDCs at work in the communities, we need to remember that, from the standpoint of growth and sustainable development, the topic of your study, the CDEM model is very interesting. It has even been used in Africa, in the form of a five-year project with Mali and Burkina Faso. Those countries have copied the CDEM model, pure and simple. In Mali, they have a CADEL and in Burkina Faso, they have a CDEL, as well as CDCs. They have economic development support cells in each of their communities. It all started with a cross-border project.

Not only did our model give rise to an RDÉE, but it has also become a model internationally. One of the model’s great strengths is that CDCs are able to keep their assets. They go back to the people, though they are not in competition with the private sector, and they are aware of their environment. That is the strength of the model.

At the moment, the CDEM is in accommodation provided by the Entreprises Riel Corporation, which owns a number of real estate projects. It has a wonderful tourist program for the city of Winnipeg and a lot of programs for its communities.

The same thing is true in rural areas. I come from St. Laurent, the community that probably had the fewest means. You will find a corporation there that has recently burned the mortgage on the health centre it owns, meaning that it is now celebrating over $1 million in assets. That is equally true for several other communities that, in some cases, have several million dollars in assets. That is important to bear in mind, given that we are talking about sustainable development and the ability to determine our long-term growth.

Our analysis of the situation is built on three realities, which I am going to present to you. One is urban, the second is periurban and the third is rural. That is the situation we are seeing more and more in Manitoba. We are facing more or less the same phenomenon as the world is facing: massive urbanization that has a lot of impact in the periurban zones. That clearly leaves the rural world with very few avenues for development, at least those in its own control. That is why I will tell you later about the structures we have put in place in order to ensure the viability and vitality of those communities.

There is strong urban growth. Winnipeg is a bit like Regina and Saskatoon. It is home to very catalytic projects, like CentrePort. It is a phenomenal situation. You may know that, in 2013, we had an average unemployment rate of 5.3%, ranking Winnipeg third in Canada. That is a sign that, in terms of employment, we are at a very favourable point in our situation. As I said earlier, some places have full employment. In that context, the challenges are different.

A lot of our francophone communities are located in the periurban zone. They are also experiencing a demographic boom, with significant population increases, though their francophone nature is somewhat in peril. Proportionally, francophones are becoming more and more the minority. In some places, they can represent 10% to 15% of the municipality.

Of course, that requires a lot of vigilance on our part to keep the ground we have gained. There again, it is because of the structure that links economic development and the territory. The notion of designated territory was developed in Manitoba in the Chartier report and was something borrowed from the Australians. It is the same idea as bike paths: protected areas for our communities.

In rural areas, one challenge is important to point out. Unless they are able to do something about it, the areas further from the first two zones I described just now are much more vulnerable. It is really in their interests to do something about their situations with their economic development corporations, and also with all other groups involved.

In Manitoba, we are trying to work more and more with all the organizations on the ground to guarantee that rural development is effective and efficient. I will talk more about that later. There are still a lot of challenges in terms of material and human resources. The further you are from the centre, the harder it becomes.

You are probably wondering what happens with the francophones who are not fortunate enough to be included in the designated territory. We are trying more and more to make sure that we can provide services to all those groups, especially in terms of entrepreneurship.

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