Thank you, Madam Chair.
And thank you to our panellists, both from this panel and the previous one. Your reports and insights today have been invaluable to this study on Status of Women and the change in the terms and conditions that have been undertaken.
I'd like to start, just to preface my comments, from the position that what we're seeing here, in fact--and I heard this through the course of the testimony this afternoon--is the realization that there exists an acceptance that while the public sector has invested heavily in advancing funding for equality-seeking groups and so on over the last 20 or more years, even by the admission of the various groups that have provided testimony to this committee in the last month or so, tremendous need still exists. And predominantly, and even backed up here today, these needs in fact exist in the community and at the community level. We heard examples of that this afternoon.
To Ms. Graydon's point that this goes beyond just treating the effects of the issues around inequality, it in fact speaks directly to the kinds of injustices that are occurring at the community level.
When I look at the new terms and conditions for Status of Women--and I'll preface my question this way--what we see, and I'm speaking now of the women's program, is that the program's key objective is to achieve the full participation of women in economic, social, and cultural life in Canada. And as its key priorities--but not just these three--the focus of these programs would be towards aboriginal women, immigrant women and visible minority women, and senior women. As I said, these are the priorities of the women's program. That's not to say that only these categories of needs would be addressed.
I'll start, perhaps with Ms. Genaille. Could you tell me, from the standpoint of your organization, how that new objective of the women's program would fit with the needs you have in your community?