Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister, for being with us today. We certainly realize you have a busy schedule and we appreciate the time you have taken to be with us here today. As well, I want to thank and welcome Anik Lapointe and Linda Savoie for being with us.
I know you are here to speak about the main estimates and how they fit into the larger picture of our government's economic action plan.
As we all know, Canada has enjoyed great success internationally, and this year the IMF declared that it expected Canada to be the strongest-growing economy in the G-7 over the next two years. Our economy continues to grow, as do our various industries and commerce sectors. In fact both the International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development expect Canada to be among the strongest-growing economies in the G-7 over this year. The next three major credit-rating agencies have reaffirmed their top ratings for Canada.
This is very good news, Minister, as you know and we all know. It is expected that Canada will maintain its AAA rating in the year ahead.
We have seen investments in Canada through Status of Women Canada, and as you indicated, in the last seven years alone the Government of Canada has provided over $53 million for projects to promote women's economic security and prosperity. Of this amount, more than $9 million has gone to projects that address women's entrepreneurship. That alone certainly brings a lot of money into our Canadian economy.
I'm interested in hearing about our economic action plan for 2014, and specifically about the increasing role of women in Canada's business sector. Does action plan 2014 offer support to women in areas where it had been lacking before? Why is this such an important issue for all of us?