I will call the meeting to order, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the study of Status of Women Canada's funding decisions.
On April 28 the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women adopted the following motion to study Status of Women Canada's funding. The motion reads:
That the Committee hold a special meeting to examine the manner in which funding is distributed by Status of Women Canada, and in particular, examine the apparent denial of funding to previous Status of Women Canada grant recipients in the 2009 call for submissions; and invite the current and former Ministers of State for the Status of Women, the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women, Womanspace Resource Centre, the Pay Equity Coalition, Conseil d'intervention pour l'accès des femmes au travail, and any other witnesses that the committee wishes to invite.
The meeting is therefore to listen to these groups and to what they have to say with regard to funding. I will give each group 10 minutes. I will let you know two minutes before the 10 minutes as to whether you have two minutes left or not. It would be lovely if you didn't have to take all 10 minutes, but we'll give you 10, and then we will go into a question and answer session.
I will begin with the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women.