Sure. The Dutch fund was set up after the millennium development goals were established, to support achieving the gender equality goals that were part of that. It was funding for women's organizations outside of the Netherlands, in low-income countries. Ten years ago, it was approximately the equivalent of $100 million. Those impacts were in other countries.
In fact, Canada has had its own women's funds in other countries. It has funded a women's fund in Pakistan and helped women change the legal system so they were recognized as witnesses in court. The women's fund supported by Canada in Paraguay helped women's organizations make domestic violence a crime. There is really good evidence that it is very effective.
Direct money to women's organizations also addresses.... Those organizations are best placed to say.... For example, I learned from someone who works on violence against women in a rural setting that a shelter is not always the right answer for women in rural Canada. Sometimes, what they need is home visits or other kinds of programs that speak to the reality that they live, which is different from that of women in, say, downtown Toronto.
Women's organizations are part of their communities. These are members of our communities, so they are very effective in understanding how to target their programs and services, and not so process-y in doing that. They are already there, and they already know, because they've been working with those communities for decades and they can deliver that.
We can talk about per capita spending, but I will say that, if we increased our spending through the women's program to $100 million.... I've actually calculated what difference that would make to our debt-to-GDP ratio, and you have to go out about 13 decimal points to see it. It's a lot of money to an individual, but in terms of the scale of the federal budget, it's really doable. It's doable right away.