I am sure you will understand that it would take me hours to answer all of those questions, but I will try to be brief.
I know it seems strange for the Montreal office to cover Nunavut, but Quebec already had a mandate for Nunavut for a number of years. So there is nothing surprising about it. I simply wanted to explain, for the record, that the Montreal office was for Status of Women Canada, and not only for the Women's Program. This office was the link with the provincial government, it was supposed to monitor what was happening in the province so as to be on top of the issues. It also provided an interface with all of the federal departments so as to promote gender integration , to inform them about the status of women and to monitor what was happening. All of that will disappear. Moreover, the Montreal office will be reduced, and the Quebec office will disappear. Those are the consequences.
Obviously, it has sometimes taken between six months to a year to process some grant applications. We are extremely concerned about the time required to process an application. We are also extremely concerned about the guidelines. We are told that elderly women, young women, women from cultural communities and aboriginal women will be taken care of. The Fédération des femmes du Québec brings together a number of these women, but it is not the specific representative for anyone of these groups. Would it be possible for the Fédération to have some help from program officers to prepare a grant application? That is what we are wondering.
With respect to equality, in my opinion, it is not something that you take out and wear on special occasions, and then put it away. Equality is something that we have been fighting for for years. We are fighting for equality between men and women and equality among all women. We are very worried about the cuts to Status of Women Canada. I am not referring to the grants, but to the operation side of Status of Women Canada. When you take away half of the staff, it is obvious that Status of Women Canada will have a harder time getting the work done.
Some of our projects were done in conjunction with young women. They told us about their needs, about what they would like and what they want to do with their lives. Among our member groups is one group that is working on pay equity. However, the unions are also working on pay equity. This is being discussed throughout Quebec. We want non unionized women to also be entitled to pay equity where they work. This group, which is a member of the federation, may non longer be able to receive funding for this type of work. A lot of this type of work will end in the coming months or within a year and a half because the Women's Program has changed its criteria.