Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to both of you for being here today.
I'm glad to see that we have Sonya Shorey here from Invest Ottawa, someone I've worked with in the past and still collaborate with as the member of Parliament for Ottawa—Vanier. The work that Invest Ottawa is doing, I think, is a game-changer for our community.
I also want to thank Christine Nakamura for being here today. I'm glad to meet you, and I'm sure you're a leader, also, in what you do.
In 2018, the Government of Canada established the women entrepreneurship fund and allocated $20 million in the federal budget to finance more than 200 projects, and then an additional $10 million, including $2.5 million for indigenous women entrepreneurs, to help fund approximately 100 projects.
It has been a fund that gave the opportunity for women entrepreneurs and their businesses to receive a value of approximately $7 billion.
I want to talk about the women entrepreneurship strategy. First of all, are you aware of it? Second, what is working and what is not working? How can the government look at keeping what's working and maybe look at what needs to be done? This is where I'm hoping you can share with us how this women entrepreneurship fund is supporting women in business.
I'll start with Sonya, and then Christine.