Thank you for the question.
For an organization like the National Council of Women, the cutbacks, quite simply.... If the applications are being governed by the guidelines that we have seen, it means we will not have funds, and not be able to access funds, to do research on issues like maintaining the health of elderly women, many of whom happen to belong to groups that are still doing the volunteer work that is unpaid, uncounted, and not acknowledged in Canada's gross domestic product. Most of it is being done by senior women. I believe it's between 80% and 85%.
Should this particular workforce, this unsung workforce, become ill or die, which they will eventually, we wonder just who will be left to do the volunteer work that is still not acknowledged by any level of government and, in spite of repeated requests, has not been recognized by previous governments. It's a serious question. Without funding to do research, we can't even establish the validity of maintaining this force of women.