Thank you so much. I really feel that positivity, especially when it comes to attitude and work ethic, is so catching.
I have worked with many different areas of women's concerns, rural women's concerns. As I said earlier, immigration and settlement services is a huge area where there is a lot of opportunity for women to really be down about themselves. They are thrown into a completely new environment, and their skills and professional degrees from elsewhere are not necessarily recognized. In fact, often they are not. I have seen a lot of opportunities for women to help other women, to give them a hand up to really progress well and further their education and make their skills more marketable.
I was the regional manager of a community college enveloping a catchment area of six school divisions. I have worked with many of these women first-hand. I have worked with them to help them either qualify for other jobs that they have chosen in careers or requalifying in this country. These are incredibly huge areas that I feel this government is doing a very good job with.
Also, in regard to employment and finance and education and health care, so many of these, even though they seem separate or segregated, are really very much intertwined, and one often helps with the other. The education and retraining that is needed through education, and when women receive employment insurance benefits, these are all things that benefit their children and their families. Their spouses also benefit, but the children especially, and I feel this is really critical.
As well, I had mentioned increasing funding to the status of women program to the highest level ever, a 42% increase. This is remarkable and so much needed for rural women--and the shifting focus of going to the grassroots level organization. Every strong house that stands straight and true is built on a strong foundation, and this exactly helps women in rural areas and women throughout Canada. The funding has been increased to in excess of $1.3 million. I would just like to see these programs come along. Alberta and British Columbia are good templates to start...and learn what is working for them and working well for them and move some of these other programs further east.
I see a lot of things, a lot of help from the government truly wanting to help women. And the accessibility, I believe, is very much there for women, because the statistics will demonstrate that the highest percentage of EI recipients are indeed women. The statistics speak for themselves when it comes to maternity leave and benefits, the parental leave benefits as well.
These are areas of great access, as well as on-the-job benefits for when women are retraining for other jobs and other careers. I have experienced it and worked with these women first-hand, be it in a college setting or working with immigration and settlement services and other areas of education, as well as working with them in regard to finance and just setting up a household and building a new life here, as well as helping other women in rural areas do the same. It's not just for immigrant women, it's for Canadian women, period.