Thank you for the opportunity to report. Through the women's program, the Status of Women office has received 56 applications.
In fact—thank you for this opportunity—I'm very pleased to tell you that the first project approved under the new terms and conditions is to the Prince George New Hope Society.
They believe this project will help sex workers and sexually exploited young women, particularly young aboriginal women in Prince George and northern British Columbia. They will be working with their community organizations, their law enforcement, the RCMP, and to ensure that....
They also have a program whereby they will be one evening a week on the streets describing what this organization offers. They have programs now whereby the women and the young women who choose not to live on the streets and to undertake this activity.... They have a workshop project going there. They also have management sensitizing law enforcement and the judicial system within that small community on the challenges faced by these particular women. Their expected outcome is improved opportunities for these women who are currently being exploited.
I'm very proud to make that announcement.
The other thing I will ensure and can assure you is that with the reporting requirements, the funds are going to be used accountably. They've reported that there will be 120 participants in 10 workshops, and this is the kind of real difference that these projects will make.
As far as other activities are concerned, those are under the women's program's new terms and conditions. In fact, there are many provincial ministers with whom we have been in conversation who have approached this government on the new terms and conditions with very meaningful projects they would like to see happening in their provinces.
We've been working with them, and hopefully, as we talk to them, they're actually supporting third-party, independent, non-profit organizations who work in communities so that they too can undertake projects that would help women in various provinces.
This is very encouraging. I think the thing is that we will see measurable differences in individual lives of Canadian women as we move forward.