My name is Maria Lepage. I am the President of the Fédération provinciale des Fransaskoises. Our organization works to maintain and improve the well-being of francophone women in Saskatchewan. Our organization is part of the network of the Alliance des femmes de la francophonie du Canada.
We want to underscore the significance of the closing of Status of Women Canada's offices, because they helped us do our work on the front lines, and say just how disappointed we are.
It's not that we received a lot of money, but at least we had a voice. Women are especially affected by the lack of education. When we talk about the education of women, we talk about literacy, early childhood education, entrepreneurship and the social economy in Saskatchewan.
Training is provided by the Service fransaskois de formation aux adultes, or SEFFA, and the corporation of the Collège Mathieu. Ninety per cent of the people who take French literacy training are women. And it is only women who take French training for teaching assistants in the area of early childhood education and day care. On the French side, the same holds true for college level courses in entrepreneurship and as far as Saskatchewan's social economy is concerned.
We need a bigger envelope for literacy and education to help the community and women who for the most part work in these sectors. The decision must be reviewed. Something has to be done so that there is money for front-line workers, so that women can receive training, which will lead to greater economic independence, and which in turn will help us progress. This will also help uphold women's rights because in the last two months we have had the impression of going back 50 years. I therefore want this committee to make a real effort to tell the federal government about the needs of francophone women in Saskatchewan, and that the government take further measures to help them.