Canada’s 430,000 Francophone businesses account for no less than 19.5% of Canada’s GDP! They contribute $130 billion in additional economic activity outside Quebec. According to Statistics Canada, every dollar of GDP from Canada’s Francophone economic space contributes an estimated $1.52 to Canada’s overall GDP.
In Canada, French has a multiplying factor of 1.6 on trade with French-speaking countries. For example, in 2011, trade increased by $3.5 billion because of French in Canada. (Source: Conference Board).
There is a strong cultural and tourism industry controlled by Francophone minorities.
RDÉE Canada wants to help Francophone businesses contribute more to this wealth. To that end, the organization, together with the members of its Network, is working on ways to provide a wide range of services to Francophone businesses. Each member organization is a unique gateway for doing business in French and has a good knowledge of its community and the businesses that operate there. In nine provinces and three territories, RDÉE Canada’s members will support you in bringing your business project to fruition.
Every year, on average, close to 20,000 entrepreneurs participate directly in one of the activities carried out or coordinated by member organizations. According to our socio-economic impact study, in 2018, the number of businesses benefiting from Network programs and the annual number of new employees (who are not Network beneficiaries) of beneficiary businesses grew by 66% and 33% respectively.
Within Canada’s economic Francophonie, RDÉE Canada and the members of its Network have taken a reflective approach and adopted an innovation-based research/action and development strategy, with two main focuses.
- Focus 1: Support the start-up, expansion, consolidation and succession of small and medium-sized enterprises
- Focus 2: Establish and cultivate interprovincial and international business development strategies
Objective 1:
Have private and social enterprises that are sustainable, efficient and diversified and are majority-owned by members of the official language minority. How? By increasing participation in community economic development and entrepreneurship promotion activities, and by supporting the creation, consolidation and development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).Objective 2
Strengthen the capacity of Francophone and Acadian communities to seize business opportunities where English-French bilingualism is an added value. How? By investing in the development and implementation of a national trade and investment strategy to enable Francophone and Acadian communities to take advantage of their assets. This strategy must include economic measures to help establish and cultivate interprovincial and international business relationships for SMEs in markets where the Francophone asset translates into a tangible economic advantage. The strategy must also make it possible to take full advantage of the relationships of trust that immigrants have with the French-speaking country or region from which they came by developing and implementing a strategy to match business owners (sellers) with the next generation (buyers), along with an awareness plan that reflects the socio-economic realities of the Francophone and Acadian communities.Objective 3:
Stimulate the commitment and investments of a greater number of economic development and employability partners, particularly around priority issues. How? By increasing economic initiatives with Quebec to boost synergy and catalyze partnerships, so that Canada’s economic Francophonie forms a strong economic block, able to maximize its business networks and alliances.RDÉE Canada is a major partner of the International Economic Forum of the Americas.
