Status of Women Committee on Dec. 3rd, 2009

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Ms. Mathyssen, you have 30 seconds for question and answer.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

I'm sorry, you've caught me off guard, Madam Chair. I thought for sure that I was over time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

We've gone over a couple of times.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

You were talking about awarding funding to various groups. I'm assuming that those groups would have to do a good job of research to support their application. How do they do that research? How do they manage it now?

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

There are a lot of individual projects listed on the website. Each has their own different way of approaching it, obviously. For me, I rely on the officials to go through each one of the applications before they make a recommendation to me to ensure not only that it's meeting accountability measures that we put in place, but that it's a project that's in line with the three pillars, that is actually doable in their mind, that can be fulfilled. I accept the recommendations all the time. We challenge each other once in a while, but I will say that they are experts and they know what the process is to take them through that, to take them to that recommendation stage.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Minister.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Quickly, there are just a couple of organizations you mentioned that no longer receive funding. For organizations that are applying for funding to support projects, with the new measures we have put in place, anybody can apply to do the work that we do now. You just have to follow the guidelines on how we do this.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I'm sorry, Minister. Thank you.

Ms. McLeod, you have three minutes. I'm going to be brutal about this because we have gone well over the amount of time for the three minutes.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to follow up quickly in terms of the comments of my colleague.

We do have to remember that violence against women is not specifically with people who are suffering from poverty. It goes through all and every level, from wealthy through... I don't want that perception to be left out.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

You're quite right. There are no borders.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

I also really appreciate the support. In my riding a number of the initiatives that have moved forward are very important initiatives, whether that be with Elizabeth Fry or with some of the great positive feedback that I have had in my community with some of the grassroots' proposals.

What I'd really like to focus on right now is this. You've discussed the three pillars that make up the priority work at Status of Women. Within the context of economic security, because truly that is an issue, what actions are you taking?

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Projects vary. They start at the most basic level of financial literacy skills to even those who have a small business. Especially in the immigrant community there are some significant projects that help those women. How do you run a small business from the very small level of business? We often talk about small and medium-sized enterprises. You hear of some with $500,000 a year in sales and up, but we're talking about the smallest business here. Those are the women that these projects are addressing.

Some of the other things we are doing are things like CATA WIT, which I mentioned, to ensure that we can see more women involved in technology, and in addition to that, there are some other really important projects.

I'm going to talk about WEConnect, because WEConnect is focusing on small businesswomen, and this is about market access.

I will be quick because I know you like me to talk a little less, Madam Chair.

When you're talking about a small businesswoman who has decided to create a food product in her home and she wants to put it on the grocery store shelf, if she wants to do that, it can cost $25,000 just to get one space for one item on the grocery store shelves. What the supplier diversity program does is waive those fees. You go through the knowledge, the training, and the mentoring and you become certified. Then you are entered into a database where the larger companies, the grocery stores, etc., the Campbell soups of the world, take a look at this database and commit to purchasing all of their new products, or 5% of them, from the businesses in this database. This is the project that we announced. I've asked and made it very specific that it's focused on those small businesswomen to give them the market access, to give them the chance to grow those small businesses out of their homes and into something a lot bigger than they are. That is significant when we look at the number of small businesses that are being created by women across the country. We know they are doing it at twice the rate that men are, and they're doing it for lots of reasons that I know we can each identify at this table at the drop of a hat. But that needs to be supported, and that's why our government is supporting this project.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much, Minister.

I would like to thank you for appearing before us today. I would like to suggest that we suspend for one minute to go in camera to deal with the report.

Thank you.

[Proceedings continue in camera]