Thank you, Madam Chair.
We would like to thank committee members for accommodating us in the last few hours of this study.
We really appreciate the gesture. We understand you're moving on later today to the task of drafting your report. We're really pleased to participate in the process.
I should mention as we start that the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada has 68,000 members and students across Canada and internationally. We're particularly interested in the topic you're studying because women form the largest growing number of CGAs in Canada.
In Quebec, in fact, Madame Deschamps, it's very interesting to learn
that last year in Quebec, 60% of our new members were women.
In fact, in British Columbia two-thirds of our student population is female. So there is enormous growth in that area.
Your committee is examining an issue of fundamental importance for the well-being of Canada. As you know, and as you've learned across the weeks and weeks of hearings, many factors influence the economic security of women. In a country as prosperous as Canada, there are still far too many women living in poverty. The statistics—you've heard them through your study—are staggering. We commend you for seeking to find solutions to help resolve this very real problem.
The flip side, and the one, perhaps, we're looking at, and the one we're going to talk to you about today, is the fact that more and more women are joining the ranks of Canada's entrepreneurs. The number of women entrepreneurs has doubled in the last 15 years, and the number is growing at a pace 60% faster than that of their male counterparts.
The number is surprising. These women are amazing women. They are redefining work and redefining workplaces. They're creating jobs and they're creating prosperity. So when we talk about the SME sector in Canada being the engine of economic growth, we know that the majority behind making those engines run are women.
I have invited Louise Nesterenko, a fellow certified general accountant, a former chair of the board of CGA-Canada, and a woman entrepreneur in her own right. Louise is from Alberta. I'm speaking for her now, but she will speak for herself very shortly. At last count, she ran three businesses that employed 65 people plus an estimated 25 to 30 volunteers. I think it's the type of business that Louise runs that makes the difference. I guess she is an expert with an interest in turning a profit, but she's also interested in giving back to the community. One of the businesses she's set up, which she calls Books Between Friends, sells used books and miscellaneous items and returns all profits to local charities. This year, Books Between Friends will give in excess of $60,000 to local charities in Alberta.
There are a lot of Louises in Canada. Admittedly, perhaps not all are as successful as she is, but all of them aspire to be.
Given that Canada's economy, as I mentioned, and its continuing prosperity depend on small and medium-sized businesses, I think policy-makers, and you as a committee, need to pay attention to women like Louise. In preparing for today, we asked ourselves what these women would need to succeed. What would they need to make them more successful, and how can this House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women make a difference by bringing forth recommendations?
We looked at four aspects of it. This is not the first time we've looked at this. We looked at this a few years back when there was a Liberal caucus task force on women's entrepreneurship, and we looked at some of the issues.
The first one we looked at was access to funding, or access to capital. It still remains an issue for women entrepreneurs, but I'm told anecdotally that this side is improving, and Louise can speak to that point later on. There has always been sort of a stigma, a disadvantage for women, when building a credit rating. More importantly, I think, is that we need to help our daughters understand the importance of building good credit and of having sound financial management skills. I'll talk a bit about how the tax system can help in a minute.
The second point we'd like to leave with you today is that we need to provide women with access to education and training. Of course, education is the key to Canada's productivity. When I look at the paper released today by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Industry and the Minister of Finance on the new science and technology strategy, I see a lot of words here on education. I think there's a lot of inspiration here. In terms of women and supporting women's entrepreneurship, I think we need to target financial entrepreneurial education to women early on in their careers to allow them to acquire the knowledge and tools needed to build successful businesses.
We need to target the learning, and I think we need to target the learning around networks and women's networks. In that respect, the federal government has a good track record of creating centres of excellence. One of the proposals we want to leave with you today is the creation of centres of excellence on women's entrepreneurship.
A big point—again, Louise will speak to that a bit more later—is the issue of employment insurance and allowing women entrepreneurs to access employment insurance. They really face this sort of unique dilemma. As employers, they contribute financially to the EI program. But as individuals, as we know, they're unable to access the program. As the program expands beyond maternity benefits into issues like compassionate leave, women entrepreneurs are more and more disadvantaged.
Women are still primary caregivers. The numbers don't lie on that. We think that expanding the EI program is a necessary policy direction that we need.
On the issue of taxation, I think there has been some positive movement on the issue of small business generally, on the issue, for example, of increasing the small business threshold. But we think the tax system should be more supportive of entrepreneurship in many ways.
One of issues we'd like to leave with you as well is allowing increasing RRSP contribution limits and pensions. You've heard throughout your hearings that this is an important issue for women, especially as we all age. Also, the idea of accessing RRSP funds to serve as collateral for qualifying private ventures are strategies we think would make a difference. Add to that the idea of tax credits for supporting start-ups in innovative areas or tax credits for businesses that hire, train, and retrain women. Women are running these small and medium enterprises, they are creating jobs, they have an opportunity to hire, train, or retrain other women.
These are some of the issues we think the federal government can resolve. We think they're simple, but I think they're attainable.
We would be pleased to answer your questions.
Thank you.
