Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I want to thank the witnesses, again, for being present with us today in this important study.
It's one of the greatest barriers we have in our country. The low level of women's representation on senior executive boards was mentioned by my colleague Mr. Arya. There has been, of course, movement on this. Canada should be a leader in this space, though. It's not going fast enough. You spoke about international access. I think that's a very important issue. I'd like to speak to the members of the committee, and spend some time on that issue, after I spend some time speaking about the importance of indigenous tourism with Ms. Holder.
Ms. Holder, I have a bio of you here. I'm not certain if we've ever met before, to be very frank, but I see that you're a descendant of former Iroquois chief Michel Kwarkwante. I am also a descendant of Michel Kwarkwante. It's likely we're related somewhere, deep down that line from the late 1800s. It's good to meet a cousin from a long time away.
You are the vice-chair of the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada, and its Alberta director. One of the largest issues we're hearing about when it comes to indigenous tourism is the barrier to capital. We talked about that capital barrier. There's a consequence to not accessing capital, which is that indigenous women are often taking their own savings, which they generated, as source revenue to build those companies. That's huge. We admire them for that. I'm sure you know exactly what it feels like to build up a company. However, there's a critical moment in there: How do you commercialize it? When I talk to people right across Alberta, particularly women who want to get involved in indigenous tourism, this is a barrier. They do everything right. They literally build this beautiful site, just as you have. Then they don't know what to do after that. They have the stories. They have the pride. They have everything, but they don't have the clients. They don't know how to bridge that gap.
What could you recommend as a program or service that supports this work? What do you recommend these women do in this circumstance?