In response to the previous speaker, in 2003 there was a task force report on women entrepreneurs. At that time there were almost a million women entrepreneurs in Canada. They were creating businesses at twice the rate of men. So I think we need to be careful. We're not suggesting that there are not many, many very competent women doing very interesting things. Shortly after that, in 2005, my own company surveyed 500 women business owners in Atlantic Canada for ACOA, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. That was to establish the baseline data for the women in business initiative. We went into that study assuming that we would find women in certain categories, certain fields. Retail was an example. A lot of people had the idea that women businesses were all in retail. We were surprised to find a diversity. There was a wide range of different areas of endeavour that women had started businesses in.
This new legislation came into effect in January so that self-employed women can access maternity parental benefits as well as passionate care and sickness benefits. This is something we have asked for, for a long time. We're happy to see it. We like the choice part of it because we're not sure a lot of our members will do take-up on it, but some members definitely will.
I agree with the previous speaker.... I'm sorry, I didn't get your name.
There are a lot of very competent women who are working in other fields. To go back to that, it is a multi-pronged approach that is needed. We can go back to the way boys and girls are raised. If you look at the newspapers and the websites around us, you see who is working in the skilled trades. Until we get some more women's faces in there...that area is changing more slowly.