Canadian Heritage committee  If there's a way to set up international training programs to.... At a lot of universities now, students will go to spend a year abroad, so I'd recommend some type of program like that where people could go to the U.S., to the U.K., or other places where there are larger or mid-sized theatre companies so they could gain that experience, and not necessarily at a young age but maybe after they've run a small company in Canada, and they'd like to move up.

Canadian Heritage committee  For arts organizations, it's more to do with transparency and explaining and showing where we are, rather than a top-down, legislated, or rules-based requirement. It allows the patrons and the audiences to see how many women are involved and at what level. I think it's more on a reporting side and explaining to the public where women are involved.

Canadian Heritage committee  That is something we do worry about. We could get down to two highly qualified people. I think if we were to select the male candidate from the two finalists, he would have to be quite superior to the female candidate or we would tend to go to the female candidate, because of the current environment.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think more women are taking the step on their own. I think it also depends on whether you're talking about arts leadership, as in artistic directors and executive directors, or if you're talking about arts boards. For boards, I think the financial aspect is important, because people need to or are expected to have money and do need to have time to allocate to being board members.

Canadian Heritage committee  From my understanding, certainly the large arts institutions—like the ROM, the Canadian Opera Company, and things like that—have a very high dollar amount that they expect people to contribute. It's like $50,000 or something in that range. It's a very high number. Smaller organizations, as I understand it, also have expectations but to a lesser degree.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for the opportunity to share my views with you today. I commend the standing committee for looking into the issues of gender parity in arts and cultural organizations. I'll give you little background on me. I run an investment management company in Toronto and have been involved as a board volunteer with social service and arts organizations since the 1990s.