The regional offices are extremely important because WP program officers would follow up on our files, both in terms of developing our applications and throughout the follow-up process. It was an extremely important relationship.
As well, there were people at SWC with expertise in women's issues that will no longer be there now. These departmental cuts send a very negative message. We need a strong department to ensure that, within the federal system, women's issues are indeed cross-cutting.
Just as there is a Status of Women Secretariat in Quebec, we need a similar body at the federal level. There also needs to be an independent research program at the federal level. In the same way that we have the Quebec Council on the Status of Women, there needs to be the same kind of organization federally. So, we really need for the entire structure to be maintained, because this is long-term work. All of us here can bear witness to that.
So, this will have a disastrous effect. We have been told that an office will remain open in Montreal, with a director who will not even be a regional director, but rather, a program coordinator or officer whose job will be to receive the applications of hundreds of groups in Quebec. It's absolutely unbelievable.