International Trade Committee on Oct. 7th, 2024

[Ruth Vachon]

Frankly, I think a lot of people would like to go in the same direction or seize the issue.

The Government of Canada works a lot by sector. We know that 80% of women work in the service sector. Diversifying suppliers is a way of working with all women in all sectors, both services and manufacturing, which is not common.

Sometimes we tend to design initiatives that are so specific that, at the end of the day, they help very few women. Instead, we should focus on much broader initiatives to help as many women as possible. For example, a large sum, say $500,000, will be invested in a business, when the same amount could have been used to help 500 organizations. I think the funds are not allocated properly. More work needs to be done on that.

Let us not forget that there are not a lot of women in the technology sector. The government should invest a lot of time in educational institutions to attract more women to the technology sector. We work mainly with women in the service sector. When they come to us, we do not have a lot of leeway in terms of the direction they have chosen. We need to respect their choices and help them evolve.

The important thing is to help as many women as possible. That is why sector-specific support is a major obstacle to women's growth.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

I often hear that women entrepreneurs, after getting funding to start their business, feel abandoned at the commercialization stage. It is as if there was no more assistance.

What do you think?

[Ruth Vachon]

There is a lot of money at the start of the business, but afterwards, we should help women develop somewhat because they hit a sort of low tide. Meanwhile, the doors are wide open for big corporations. It is important to support women at this stage, because they are inclined to delay the development of their business when they find themselves in this situation.

As Ms. Codsi said earlier, they are much less inclined to network. They work on their product and fall in love with it. They literally forget to go out and sell it. Our role is to bring them to markets so that they gain self-confidence. That is what Ms. Codsi was saying as well. Women lack self-confidence. We are here to try to fill this gap, which is somewhat generalized.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Is the biggest challenge getting them to market?

[Ruth Vachon]

Yes, that is correct.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

What are the challenges facing women entrepreneurs in the regions compared to those in large cities?

Are there differences between the two situations? Is it more difficult in the regions?

[Ruth Vachon]

First, 80% of large businesses are in large urban centres. Of course, women tend to get closer to the major centres as part of their business activities. However, if they want to do something in a major city, they are often disadvantaged by the distance they have to travel on the road. Earlier, it was said that women are less likely to leave home when they have children. Distance is a barrier. We are trying to reduce its impact, but it is still a barrier.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

What role does the Réseau des femmes d'affaires du Québec play in supporting women entrepreneurs?

[Ruth Vachon]

We are right there on the ground. The RFAQ is the instrument of business development for women-owned businesses.

For example, we knock on the doors of large corporations and ask them how much they are willing to invest in women-owned businesses to buy their products and services during the year. We invite women to sit around the table, and we ask them what they need. We make sure that we invite the right people to make things happen.

During our last three-year mandate, we told the Government of Quebec that we were going to create economic benefits of about $11 million. Our actual net economic benefits were $80 million.

A woman entrepreneur with only three employees is not going to knock on Costco's door. These women need someone to represent them, someone who will be able to make things happen afterwards. We need to make sure that we are able to grow their business based on their capacity.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much. I'm sorry. We're about 10 seconds over.

Mr. Miao, go ahead, please.

[Wilson Miao, Liberal, Richmond Centre, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses for being here today.

The government has created and funded several funding streams to help and support businesses, especially for women. When businesses are thriving, lives and the economy are generally better.

Ms. Codsi, in your opinion, which government program has benefited you or your members the most? Is it helping women-owned businesses access any international markets? Can you share any measurable outcomes or stories about that?

[Caroline Codsi]

Thank you for the question. I can't really answer it, because, as I mentioned at the start of my testimony, I have an organization that works with corporations to elevate women.

I can share my own experience as a woman entrepreneur. The difficulty I have is finding resources and understanding where there is government-led funding, support and mentoring. Ruth was mentioning how we can help women with their start-up phase, but then we drop them there. How do they scale up? How do they continue on? It's a massive waste of money if we put it into an entrepreneur who doesn't have the support to get to the next phase. It just dies there. What are we doing to ensure that there is support at every step of the way and that we take into account, holistically, the life of a female entrepreneur, whether it's her personal life or how we can mentor her?

I don't want to get back into all the details I shared earlier, but I can't tell you which programs are most beneficial. I think that's a question Ruth can answer better, or Ashlyn.

[Wilson Miao, Liberal, Richmond Centre, BC]

Ms. Bernier, would you like to add to that?

[Ashlyn Bernier]

We have taken advantage of any and every federal, provincial and local program along our journey. As we've grown and our needs have changed, some of them have become more important.

I would like to point out a few. SR and ED has been excellent for us. We are an R and D company, and that has helped us immensely to be able to continue innovating and developing new intellectual property. We have also taken advantage of the NRC IRAP. That has allowed us to focus on creating new jobs for new, highly qualified personnel and hire those folks into our company to do that R and D.

More recently, as we've been focused on scaling, we've taken advantage of the PrairiesCan program through Western Economic Diversification, whose zero-interest repayable loans have helped us incredibly with cash flow as we have focused our efforts away from R and D and more towards go-to-market and export. Those have helped us make some of those significant investments up front. This is a challenge that I think a lot of companies have as they're transitioning from research and development to commercialization; you have to spend a lot of money and you're not going to see the payoff for quarters or, potentially, years. Programs such as the PrairiesCan loan program have helped us immensely to be able to do that.

[Wilson Miao, Liberal, Richmond Centre, BC]

Thank you for sharing that.

Do you believe the current financial initiatives are adequate to meet the needs of women-owned businesses? What kind of improvements would you recommend to the committee?

[Ashlyn Bernier]

I think they're adequate, in that there is a big enough pot of money available. Potentially, there should be some reassessment and refocusing on how we specifically support women entrepreneurs. Again, to a point I've hopefully made several times here today, it has to focus on getting those organizations and companies to revenue as quickly as possible.

What we've seen—and I've seen it in our own ecosystem—is companies ending up reliant on government programs and grants and staying alive longer than they should, when the best thing for those companies, and ultimately for our economy, would be to wind down so those entrepreneurs could take those lessons learned and move on to the next thing as quickly as possible.

[Wilson Miao, Liberal, Richmond Centre, BC]

Do you agree that Canada is one of the leading countries in supporting women entrepreneurs?

[Ashlyn Bernier]

I don't know if I have the information to say yes or no, unfortunately.

[Wilson Miao, Liberal, Richmond Centre, BC]

Does anyone else want to answer these questions?

[Ruth Vachon]

I can answer that.

The women entrepreneurship strategy has been very promising over the past five years. It has allowed us to benefit from a knowledge portal that gives us access to an enormous number of studies. It helps us direct our actions.

For us, it was very important. This strategy has enabled us to create the Maïa platform, which helps women entrepreneurs connect with each other.

It is very difficult for women to win contracts. The platform's search engine finds calls for tenders in connection with the women's lines of business. That is an important aspect.

Another aspect that is underappreciated is the fact that women have relationships with each other. Through the platform, women can get to know other women entrepreneurs, and often they can give each other contracts. According to some studies, these contracts can ensure the survival of women entrepreneurs' businesses.

Growth requires support in any sphere of activity. This platform makes peer support possible and helps women ensure the profitability of their business. That is what large companies do.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I'm sorry, Ms. Vachon, but maybe you can use those comments in response to another member's question. I don't want to take time away from the other members.

Mr. Savard-Tremblay, please go ahead for two and a half minutes.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

I am going to start with Ms. Vachon. I do not know if the other witnesses will have time to answer as well.

Ms. Vachon, given that you are the CEO of the Réseau des femmes d'affaires du Québec, do you see a difference in the challenges facing women entrepreneurs in Quebec compared to the rest of Canada?

We know that the culture of government intervention is not necessarily the same in Quebec, where we have Investissement Québec, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and other similar collective tools that form the model we have had since the 1960s.

Is there a difference between federal programs, Quebec programs and programs in other Canadian provinces?

How do all these realities differ from one another?

[Ruth Vachon]

The difference in Quebec is that we are on a bit of a blind spot, because Investissement Québec has relatively significant key performance indicators. So it is mainly about large companies. It is all about figures instead of numbers. There are things that could be improved in that regard.

Are our programs better? I do not want to brag, but the advantage we have in Quebec—

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

No need to be modest. I will certainly not complain about anyone boasting about Quebec.

[Ruth Vachon]

In Quebec, we have a unique expertise. That is why the Government of Canada asked us to share it everywhere. What we do generates benefits—millions of dollars going into the pockets of women that they would not otherwise get. That is why I think we do have an advantage.

That being said, are our women entrepreneurs facing greater challenges? I would say that we have come a long way in the last few years. We can say that we have very good women entrepreneurs in Quebec.