Status of Women Committee on March 15th, 2010

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you.

As Parliamentary Secretary for the Status of Women, I had an opportunity recently to meet with a dynamic group of women entrepreneurs from Quebec at a gathering in Gatineau. The new face of women entrepreneurship in Canada was discussed at length. According to a recent CIBC study, over 45% of Canadian SMEs are now owned by women. This study reported that women who opt to go into business do so because, first of all, they want to be in control, and second, they want to better balance work and family responsibilities.

A growing number of women are choosing to become entrepreneurs. As a result of Canada's Economic Action Plan and changes to the employment insurance system, self-employment is now recognized and self-employed women are now entitled to maternity leave.

Can you tell us about the strides that have been made in the area of entrepreneurship and about everything our government has done since taking office to assist agencies that work in the community and in the process, to give young women the power to change things.

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

Thank you.

Last year alone, through Status of Women Canada, we provided a total of $7 million in funding for projects across the country, focused on the economic security pillar. Projects varied from those involving basic business skills for businesses just starting to those involving additional skills for businesses that have been in business for two, three, or four years and that need to further advance and grow.

It is important to recognize that the OECD has cited Canadian businesswomen as being the most entrepreneurial within the developed OECD countries. We, as a government, believe it is important to support that growth, to identify with some of the reasons they go into self-employment, and to support them in their goals. The self-employment act is one of those initiatives that was long overdue, and it's been well received by women who run small businesses across the country. Having access to maternity and paternity benefits and the other benefits that those who are not self-employed have will be of significant benefit, specifically for women, and I've already cited the reasons for that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have one minute and 30 seconds.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I'll split my time with Cathy.

Merci beaucoup.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

One minute and 30 seconds, Cathy.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

This is perhaps way too short a time to talk about such an important topic.

Certainly in my community of British Columbia, the missing and murdered aboriginal women are of grave concern, and of course there are many issues in terms of aboriginals' full participation in the economy. Again, this doesn't give an opportunity, but could you briefly talk to that issue, please?

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

Thank you very much for raising what is a very important issue to all of us around the table. It has been an honour to be working with the Native Women's Association and Sisters in Spirit on the incredible research they have done. For the first time, the throne speech acknowledged the severity of this issue, and then of course our budget followed up with a $10 million commitment over two years, which my colleague the Minister of Justice will lead on.

What I will say is that I will be working very closely with my colleague, and the Native Women's Association of Canada will be working very closely as well and be a part of the entire process. There is also the community work we will be doing at Status of Women Canada, which is in addition to the $10 million that was announced.

It's heartbreaking to see. Today you can see a woman who appears to be Caucasian, who is missing, and she'll be all over the news for weeks. But if an aboriginal woman is to go missing, unfortunately it's not reported the same way. Part of the goal of Sisters in Spirit, and one of the main purposes of it, was to create more public awareness of this very serious crime that's being committed.

I think I'll just close quickly by saying that they will continue to be a part of the process and that the incredible research they have done will guide us in our decisions in our next steps.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

I think we have to be sensitive to the time. We have a seven-minute timeline. I've allowed you to go 30 seconds over in most instances, but in this one we went one minute and 30 seconds over. So I would like to ask again that the minister and others please try to keep their interventions short.

Thank you.

Irene Mathyssen.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for being here.

I'd like to continue on this discussion in regard to the Sisters in Spirit campaign. There is $10 million over a two-year period, and you said the Minister of Justice will be the lead. You also used the phrase, essentially, that the government will be using the research of those who did the work for Sisters in Spirit. My concern is—and it seems to me that you've referenced this—in terms of the paternalistic kinds of attitudes that we see in regard to paying more attention to a white woman's disappearance as opposed to an aboriginal woman's disappearance or murder. Sisters in Spirit did extensive research in terms of child welfare, justice, anti-poverty. They spent five years getting the information, and it would seem to me that they have the solutions, that they know what the answers are. You said they would play a part. My concern is that it won't be a leading role. I would like you to clarify this, because it seems to me they should be very much in the lead on this.

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

With respect to the work they have done on missing and murdered aboriginal women, they will continue to be the lead. They of course cannot lead the work that the Minister of Justice will do on the justice issues and what's required from the federal government, but they will be working very closely and advising him and providing the research they had completed in helping us to guide the decisions that we need to make in going forward and any changes that are required to be made.

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

So he will be taking their advice? He will respect that?

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

Yes, absolutely.

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

Okay. I'm glad to hear that, because it is of profound concern.

Second, I'd like to ask you about the budget in light of the concerns expressed by the Auditor General in regard to GBA in the 2009 budget. Basically it was that there didn't seem to be a government-wide obligation to undertake GBA, that appropriate documentation was missing, and the Auditor General had some serious concerns. I wonder, has Status of Women taken a look at Budget 2010? Did you do an analysis? To what degree were you involved in putting together that budget to make sure, absolutely sure, that there was a positive impact on women as opposed to what we've seen with the infrastructure program? And I'll get onto that in a moment.

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

Thank you very much for the opportunity, yet again, to highlight what we have been doing on gender-based analysis. First, as I highlighted in my last visit, I gave direction for our gender-based analysis to be updated to a more modern approach, and that is in the middle of being completed right now.

As a result of the Auditor General, we put together a gender-based analysis action plan, which we submitted--I believe you already have a copy--and it is being implemented.

I did highlight that since we became the government in 2006, we began, for the first time, the process of doing a gender-based analysis on the budget tax measures, and we have done so every year since. In addition, we issued a directive in 2007 that all Treasury Board submissions must provide evidence of gender-based analysis. That is in fact happening.

Then there was a directive, in 2009, that all cabinet submissions must provide evidence that gender-based analysis has been completed. Of course, as the minister dedicated to status of women and the minister responsible for that gender-based function, I challenge at every opportunity, and where appropriate, to ensure that gender-based analysis has in fact been done.

We are living up to our commitments and we are doing a very good job of ensuring that this is being done across government.

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

Thank you, Madam Minister. Unfortunately, an analysis of the 2010 budget from external sources again shows that women did not benefit from the budget to the degree they need to.

Madam Chair, as with last year, I wonder whether we could ask the Auditor General to take a look at Budget 2010 with regard to the effectiveness of GBA.

I want to go on to infrastructure. One of the concerns expressed in terms of infrastructure is that women got about $500,000 of the $33 billion. That's 0.0006% of infrastructure funding. Minister, what will you do to ensure that women get a share of that infrastructure spending so they can fully participate, as you've indicated they should?

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

As I have highlighted a number of times, Irene, the thousands of projects that are going on across the country benefit all Canadians--men, women, children, new Canadians, old Canadians--in many aspects. In addition, there is support and funding for a significant number of projects in order to provide women with the opportunity to be trained in those professions. Women deserve those opportunities, just as all Canadians do, and they are excelling in them. I have said many times that the men I have spoken to in the construction industry have said they prefer women to operate some of their machinery, because apparently they're not breaking the equipment.

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

Thank you, Madam Minister. That's interesting, but unfortunately, in our study of women in non-traditional jobs this past December, we found that women were still being excluded in large numbers and the opportunities weren't there.

You talked about WEConnect. How does a women entrepreneur get access to the funding you talked about?

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

She would contact WEConnect, and we would be happy to provide you with that information; I believe it is on our website. They are required to go through a training program. Specifically, this program is the leading certification program for women-owned businesses and solely women-owned businesses. It has been going on in the United States for years. It is in the U.K., and China and India are on the verge of announcing it.

It is a market access program. For those who have a product they would like to sell--for example, one item can cost $25,000 to place on a grocery store shelf, and if she is successful those fees are waived and she's given an opportunity to market her items. The fees are waived, but what's really important is that it's a database, and there are corporations that have made the commitment to purchase 5% of their new products. In fact there is one woman in my riding--

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Minister, I'm going to have to ask you to wrap it up.

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

--who had maple syrup products. It's bringing it down to that grassroots level, with a small business woman who was able to sell her items to a national corporation. Actually we have a couple of women who have highly praised the fact that through this certification process, in fact in this database, they were able to sell their college program to another university--

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Minister, I'm sorry, I'm going to have to cut you off. You've gone to nine minutes now. That's a very long answer. Perhaps you could try to tailor your answers down a little more so everyone can have an opportunity to do a second round. Thank you.

Ms. Neville.

[Anita Neville, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Thank you—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

In this round, I must tell everyone—in this instance we just went eight minutes and 30 seconds over—we tend to be going well over. With absolutely no prejudice whatsoever, I would like to ask people to shorten their questions, but I would also like the answers to be succinct.

We're now going to a five-minute round and I will only allow a short leeway, or else not everyone will get to answer a question, and as we all know in this committee, that wouldn't be fair, would it?

There you go.

[Anita Neville, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

So how much time are you telling me I have?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I'm giving you five, as you know. Five for questions and answers.