I can give it a shot.
I think we are definitely seeing research that is showing the gap in funding received by women entrepreneurs compared to their male counterparts. I think the problems are multipronged.
One thing that was mentioned earlier by other witnesses is the gender pay gap that exists in Canada and globally. The gender pay gap also leads to gender investment gaps and gender savings gaps. It's all connected. All these intergenerational and historical gaps and disadvantage have impacted women's ability to access financing, both in terms of debt financing and also in equity financing.
When we look at measures to close these gaps, we can't just look into the current snapshots; current moments are only one part of it. We have to take a more holistic approach and look at all these other factors that are contributing to why women do not have access. One of them is a lack of collateral. That is also rooted in a lot of historical problems, especially for people like indigenous women and maybe immigrant women and their credit scores in Canada.
Hopefully that will answer your question.
From a research point of view, we also need more research and better data in order to understand better.