Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It is a pleasure to appear before you today in my role as official languages champion of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, or DFATD, to talk to you about what the department is doing to build growing, sustainable economies in official language minority communities, the OLMCs.

If the committee has any questions on the Destination Canada program, which is the responsibility of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, my colleague Rénald Gilbert, who is minister-counsellor and head of immigration at the Canadian embassy in Paris, will be pleased to answer them.

I will briefly outline our actions for you under three headings, which our interlocutors at our annual official consultations with OLMC stakeholders regularly view as priorities: international trade promotion, the government's international education strategy and the economic Francophonie, which is the new dimension of the international Francophonie.

Most OLMC businesses are small or medium-sized. Although it obviously supports large companies as well, the department in a way specializes in small and medium enterprises, SMEs, which constitute most of the clientele of our trade service, the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service.

SMEs are also the particular focus of the Global Markets Action Plan, the new trade strategy the government announced last November. SMEs trying to penetrate global markets or grow and diversify their exports face many challenges. We have observed that many Canadian SMEs do this very successfully when they are well prepared and well supported by federal services in partnership with the provinces and territories and other relevant stakeholders, which helps them create jobs, grow their businesses and increase prosperity in their communities. This is how the department contributes to the economic development of official language minority communities.

However, many SMEs are unaware that services are in place to help them cut through the complexities of international trade and to find contracts, partnerships and financing or achieve any other desired objective in expanding their businesses internationally. That is why we put so much emphasis on awareness activities.

We travel across the country every year looking for new resource people and new clients, and although we normally reach out along sectoral lines, we make a special effort with OLMC businesses in all provinces and territories.

Our diplomats, when in Canada, are also enlisted in the cause. For example, during a tour of British Columbia and Alberta in February 2013, our ambassador to China met the executive director and president of the Société de développement économique de la Colombie-Britannique, which is a member of RDÉE Canada, and made a presentation on that major market to approximately 40 members of the Conseil de développement économique de l'Alberta, also an RDÉE member. Incidentally, the ambassador also visited Concordia University before going on posting.

Our efforts involve much more than diplomats, of course. The national awareness activities plan for the department's executives provides for a permanent component through which the department will seek opportunities for engagement with OLMCs.

I would note as well that the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service has agents across Canada. They provide information and practical advice on international trade to businesses on the ground. This pan-Canadian network is specifically responsible for targeting OLMCs.

Last December, for example, the director of the Prairies and Northwest Territories region travelled to Yellowknife, where she met the executive director of the Conseil de développement économique des Territoires du Nord-Ouest to discuss the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service and explore that OLMC's needs and potential regarding international markets. She intends to return during SME Week in October.

On the other side of Canada, our trade commissioner in Moncton is an active participant in the breakfast meetings organized every month by the New Brunswick Economic Council, which is the most extensive francophone business network in the Atlantic region. The purpose of our involvement is to raise the profile of the Trade Commissioner Service and to make New Brunswick's francophone and Acadian businesses aware of their services.

Another important line of action in promoting the economic development of OLMCs is Canada's International Education Strategy. As has already been noted today, education is of course a jurisdiction of the provinces and territories, but the department is working closely with them and with sectoral stakeholders to promote it internationally. The purpose of this strategy is to promote Canada's brand and to market the country as a prime education destination. The Association des universités de la francophonie canadienne and the Réseau des cégeps et des collèges francophones du Canada are two of our key partners, and specific institutions such as the University of New Brunswick are our clients in the francophone markets of the Maghreb, for example.

It is in fact an asset for Canada to offer postsecondary students the opportunity to pursue their education at Bishop's University, for example, or on the University of Alberta's Campus Saint-Jean, places where they can improve their comprehension of one language in class and of the other in the community. Incidentally, the Campus Saint-Jean was targeted last November by a cooperation mission that the department organized to promote the development of inter-institutional agreements with representatives of postsecondary education institutions in the Americas.

Lastly, the department has made reinforcing the economic aspect of the francophone space a priority in its involvement in the international Francophonie and views that as an opportunity for sustainable economic development in OLMCs. The draft economic strategy on which the members of the Francophonie are currently working will be adopted by the heads of state and government at that organization's summit in Dakar, Senegal, in November. This is also one of the current priorities of the Minister for La Francophonie, the Honourable Christian Paradis. For example, the new strategy will help consolidate implementation of the values of the Francophonie and have a direct impact on new market development, job creation and economic cooperation among the states and communities in the francophone space. One of our key partners on this project is the Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité du Canada, RDÉE.

I will leave it at that since my time is running short. My colleague, Mr. Gilbert, and I are available to the committee to answer any questions.

Thank you.

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