Madam Chair, I would like to thank the taxpayers of Canada for inviting me to this meeting.
It is my second visit to Ottawa in my 50 years, and at the pace I've seen since I came off the airline, I'm hoping I don't come back too soon.
Parents for Healthy Teens is a group of volunteer women committed to advancing the promotion of lifelong sexual health for teens.
It is well-documented that young women suffer proportionately more from the consequences of early sexual involvement. We agree with the Manitoba government that the primary responsibility for education about issues of sexuality, including AIDS, rests with the family.
Parents for Healthy Teens was formed around 1998. Our involvement with teen sexual health has been at both the local and the provincial levels. As a group of women, we have single-handedly raised funds in our community to circulate flyers to the homes in our community, identifying the value regarding lifelong sexual health.
We have worked to host a Canadian obstetrician, gynecologist, clinical professor, author, researcher, and writer, Dr. Stephen Genuis, to come to our community and speak to parents and community groups such as the RCMP, school trustees, health care workers, school staff, and parent council representatives, etc.
On our own efforts, we have purchased hundreds of dollars of research resource materials to be available to our local high school.
We have made presentations to numerous government bodies to share our concerns about the physical, social, and emotional consequences of early sexual activity within our youth population.
We have collaborated successfully with our local high school to implement an option for parents and students in the area of physical education and health.
All of the above has taken place with volunteer hours and our own dollars.
We are pleased and extremely supportive of the broadened mandate for the Status of Women. This change will provide us with an opportunity to apply to Status of Women for funding if we wish to do so. The previous mandate excluded us.
We would disagree that the changes to the terms and conditions of the women's program under the Status of Women undermines the very basis of our democracy. Our opinion is that in time and with widespread notice of these changes, your department will mobilize more women to assist women and girls in need.
Thank you for listening.