Status of Women Committee on April 9th, 2014

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you.

What recommendations would you like to make to this committee?

[Shereen Benzvy Miller]

I'm not in the business of making recommendations. As a government official I'm generally in the business of trying to respond to the recommendations made by these committees.

I would encourage you to stay focused on what we can realistically do as government to respond to the needs of this particular sector, things that we can do to be service-focused and things that we can do to provide directed training. I'll give you one example. I often hear anecdotally from women entrepreneurs a line that goes something like this, “If I had known when I started the kinds of things that I know now about financing, I wouldn't have...”. Then you can fill in the blank. For example, they wouldn't have given away so much equity, or you can just fill in the blank.

Read the Orser study. Read the task force report. You'll see that it's a common feeling for women partly because, as Dr. Konrad said, they may not be going through the same educational processes as young men are. It may also be they don't have the strong networks. They haven't heard in the locker room, “Hey, did you know there's a really good guy who can give you a loan at this bank?” They don't have those networks, necessarily. The more we can fill in the blanks using institutions like the BDC.... I'm sorry I keep pointing to you. I actually interface very closely with the BDC, and they're a very valuable resource. They have such a wide array of offices across the country to leverage that, for instance, to target women entrepreneurs to help them improve their financial literacy. Using a financial institution like this bank is something the government could do in a more targeted way. We already do that in a broader way.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you very much.

Let's continue. Mrs. Truppe, you have seven minutes.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

It's Mr. Young.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Is it Mr. Young's turn?

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

I'm here.

[The Clerk]

Yes.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

We will now return to seven-minute periods. Would you like to speak?

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Yes. This is great. Thank you so much.

I'd like to ask Ms. Benzvy Miller a question. How do you measure success in your organization, and by those measurements, what programs are working the best to assist women in achieving small or large business?

[Shereen Benzvy Miller]

Depending on the program, we measure success in different ways. I have to say that my 70,000 Twitter followers is a measure of success for me partly because, as a government official, to get social media take-up for the information we are providing that is that rich is really a measure of success. You can have all the information you want, but if there's nobody accessing or interested in it, then it's not necessarily useful. That is one measure of success, what kind of outreach we're doing and how much take-up we are getting from entrepreneurs with the information. Then, are they finding it useful? Is it helping them to succeed?

We haven't necessarily targeted the data specific to gender as well as we are starting to now. One of the ideas behind having the Canadian company capabilities directory for women-owned businesses is that we need to start targeting and refining the way in which we do these kinds of measures. Generally, our success is really about the feedback and engagement we get both directly and also through our interlocutors like the regional development agencies.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Thank you very much.

Gina Gale, can you tell me what the BDC does that the regular banks don't do to help women entrepreneurs start and grow their business?

[Gina Gale]

For both men and women looking to start a business, we offer financing and consulting services. We would take more risks. That means maybe doing a little more financing over longer periods of time, although we do price for that risk.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

The banks don't offer those kinds of terms?

[Gina Gale]

They do offer those, but our work complements that of other financial institutions. Again, the biggest difference would be in the length of time. We're very patient with our capital. For example, if we give a loan to a woman entrepreneur, sometimes we can wait a year or two for her to start making payments on that. We try to be very flexible.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Would you work maybe with one of the more conservative banks or the bigger banks to share the risk?

[Gina Gale]

We wouldn't for all our transactions, but every client of ours is certainly a client of a chartered bank.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Is that a part of your mandate? Is it written down anywhere that you help women entrepreneurs?

[Gina Gale]

I don't believe it's written down that our mandate is to help women entrepreneurs. Our mission is to provide financing and consulting services to small and medium-sized businesses. Our vision is really to accelerate the success of entrepreneurs.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Thank you very much.

Madam Boutin, are women scientists and researchers and clinicians treated equally, with equal respect and deference, when they're applying for or if they're being considered for research chairs? Do they apply as often? Do they truly have equal opportunity to be appointed as research chairs, and if they do not, why not?

[Michèle Boutin]

That's a very good question.

The research we have shows that they don't apply as much, often because they don't think they're going to get it. Also issues that Dr. Konrad brought up in terms of unconscious bias often factor into the selection process inside the institution. Research has been done with two identical CVs, one with a woman's name and the other with a man's name. There have been completely different reactions to the same CV because of these unconscious biases.

Women don't apply as much, and there are these unconscious biases and other factors that influence the decisions in the end.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Did they ever consider redacting the names from the resumes before they put them in, or is it just too subjective?

[Michèle Boutin]

For Canada research chairs in particular, the stature of the nominee is a big factor in whether they deserve a Canada research chair or not, so removing the name would sort of go against the objectives of that program. But I think it's starting to be done—and colleagues can help me here—in some institutions at the undergraduate or graduate level.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Would you say that women aren't being treated fairly with regard to research chair positions, or they are?

[Michèle Boutin]

I wouldn't make a statement like that.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Okay. I'm not trying to put words in your mouth. I'm just trying to see what's in your mind about this.