Status of Women Committee on May 5th, 2014

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the 22^nd meeting of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women.

Today, the committee is continuing its study on the economic leadership and prosperity of Canadian women.

Pursuant to an agreement made between the parties, the meeting will end at 4:45 p.m., which leaves us one hour and 15 minutes with the two groups of witnesses. The subcommittee will then meet.

I would like to welcome the witnesses we have here today. I would like to thank them for sharing their expertise with us.

I'm pleased to welcome Victoria Lennox, who I met at a meeting of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology about a year ago, if I'm not mistaken. She is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Startup Canada.

We are also pleased to welcome Laura Cattari and Brenda Thompson, members of the board of directors of Canada Without Poverty.

Welcome to you all.

Ms. Lennox, you may start your presentation.

You have 10 minutes.

[Victoria Lennox, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Startup Canada]

Good afternoon everyone. I'd like to thank the committee for inviting me to appear to discuss the prosperity of Canadian women. My comments today relate mostly to encouraging entrepreneurship amongst women and supporting women entrepreneurs.

I'd like to make a brief statement and then I look forward to any questions that you might have for me.

I am the co-founder and CEO of Startup Canada, a volunteer-run grassroots network of more than 80,000 entrepreneurs across Canada. We have 400 partners and 20 local Startup community hubs across the nation. Last Friday we celebrated our second anniversary as a start-up ourselves. Our network is made up of 40% women, and 15% of the organizations with which we partner provide focused services for women.

I am a serial entrepreneur and I am a woman. While in university, I founded a student club for women entrepreneurs, Oxford Women in Business, and today I support a number of women-focused organizations that support and enable entrepreneurship amongst women including Robogals in Australia, which teaches girls about robotics and innovation; Astia Europe, which prepares and trains female angel investors; and here at home in Canada I support CanWIT, which matches mentors and young women in technology.

I founded Startup Canada with the goal of helping Canada to become the best place in the world to start growing a business for both men and women. As the voice of Canadian entrepreneurs, Startup Canada leads a national grassroots effort to build a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem that will fuel prosperity.

In 2012 we completed a cross-country tour where we spoke to 20,000 Canadians in 40 communities to crowdsource our mission and mandate. Since then, Startup Canada's efforts have focused on uniting and strengthening our grassroots communities across Canada, from Fredericton and Winnipeg to Smithers and Nanaimo, connecting entrepreneurs online and off, undertaking initiatives to fuel a culture of entrepreneurship through storytelling and pushing forward the conversation through mainstream media, and stepping up as the voice of Canadian entrepreneurs.

Startup Canada is Canada's platform for the collective advancement of entrepreneurship. It's an economic development tool that we can leverage.

I know that this committee has heard that 14% of women solely own small businesses. At Startup Canada we promote women's entrepreneurship through mentorship and encouraging women to join support networks, accelerators, incubators, and other available programs that promote women entrepreneurship.

We know from StatsCan that small and medium-sized businesses make up more than half the business sector GDP composition in Canada. According to Stats Canada, 47% of women are willing to take the risk to start up a business, which represents an increase of 23% over the last decade compared to a 10% increase for men.

I believe that even more women would start their own business if we could provide them with the resources, network, and culture to give them a helping hand and help them eliminate some of that risk. This is the role that Startup Canada has stepped up to play.

At Startup Canada, we've made sure to nominate a woman engagement manager to work on improving women's entrepreneurship. We also ensure that women are proactively engaged, reflected, and represented throughout our programs and within our governance structure.

For the committee today, I'd like to finish off with five recommendations. I believe there are five things we could do better today to encourage greater participation of women in entrepreneurship.

First and foremost, we need to do a better job of supporting girls in getting involved in STEM topics—science, technology, engineering and maths—and an early business education through play, networks, and learning.

Second, we need to do a better job of encouraging awareness of relatable role models for girls and women. We need to do a better job of talking about them and celebrating them as part of the entrepreneurship environment.

Third, we need to encourage mentorship by supporting women in accessing mentors to help them start and scale their ideas.

Fourth, we need to facilitate access to support and networks by supporting women in connecting with each other virtually and on the ground, so that they can start and grow their companies.

Finally, we need to provide access to child care. Child care comes at a price and can limit the ability of a woman entrepreneur to go beyond one employee to actually scale their company and create jobs for Canada.

There is no central agency or organization connecting women entrepreneurs across Canada to support resources, networks, and to really champion and celebrate women from coast to coast. As a volunteer-driven organization, we are working to fill that role, but we could do so much more.

In closing, we support any investments or measures that foster an entrepreneurship culture in Canada. We believe that cultivating a better entrepreneurship ecosystem will lead to better jobs for women. The Canadian accelerator and incubator program and programs targeted towards women entrepreneurs and mentorship are good examples. We support investments that are meant to encourage women—especially young women—to become successful entrepreneurs.

Finally, Startup Canada and its 300 volunteers are working hard to promote an entrepreneurial culture in Canada, and this includes women's participation.

Thank you for your time. I welcome your questions.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you very much, Ms. Lennox.

We will now hear from Laura Cattari from Canada Without Poverty.

You have 10 minutes.

[Laura Cattari, Member, Board, Canada Without Poverty]

Madam Chair and committee members, thank you for the opportunity to address this committee.

My name is Laura Cattari, and I am secretary of the board of directors of Canada Without Poverty.

Canada Without Poverty is a national non-partisan charity with a more than 40-year history of working to eradicate poverty. Of note is that all board members have lived experiences of poverty that guide our work.

Economic leadership and prosperity is an important conversation that must address what holds women back and looks to the future of all women. From personal experience and recent research I can say with confidence that women in poverty are not able to fully participate in economic life, nor are they able to seize opportunities available to individuals of higher income brackets. The barriers women face have not only a profoundly negative effect on themselves as well as their children, but also the broader economy where contributions are either stifled or not counted, resulting in outright exclusion.

My own story is a case in point. At the peak of my career I built digital cable networks, led research and development teams, and wrote industry white papers. I was a consultant to major cable corporations; in short, an industry leader. I was also the only female among my peers. In January of 2003 I was declared officially disabled with stress-related illnesses. Could the outright discrimination I fought over the years and other challenges of a male-dominated environment have triggered this? Or perhaps it was the accumulation of stress from persistent childhood abuse, including sexual, which 20% of Canadian women face before the age of 18? The contributing factors of stress-related illnesses are well documented and gender does play a significant part.

With disability came poverty and economic exclusion. Yet despite my apparent disability, I am still articulate, intelligent, and capable of participating in my community and the economy, garnering a woman of distinction nomination from my peers. What holds me back from escaping poverty and moving forward is not my illness, but a disability of individuals and government systems. These are barriers that many women in my position face. In Canada, 75% of women with disabilities are unemployed.

To achieve success my needs are simple: adequate amounts of nutritious food, and affordable housing in a safe neighbourhood that isn't trolled by those who prey on vulnerable women. I also need the societal violence against women, which shapes language, attitudes, and behaviours, to stop psychologically affecting self-esteem and self-respect so that I no longer hear young women at leadership summits tell me they do not feel they are enough.

In terms of employment I require a system that rewards providers for supporting me to be the leader I am, and not as a part-time worker at minimum wage, where women currently fill the vast majority of positions.

I need to be able to form a life plan for my lifelong illness, with adequate income supports in times of need. I applaud current programs such as the opportunities fund for persons with disabilities, which supports part-time post-secondary education to accommodate my illness. What it does not support, though, is part-time employment. This fails to take into account part-time opportunities that also have the potential to raise me out of poverty, and my inability to state the goal of full-time employment excludes me from that program.

I am aware of various federal government programs to support vulnerable people, but not all are necessarily within reach. Inaccessible post-secondary education leaves me uncompetitive in a new field of employment. I am essentially left out of the economy and cannot reach prosperity even though I am willing and able to participate on a meaningful level.

In conclusion there are two specific recommendations I wish to make. First, adjust the qualification restrictions on the opportunities fund for persons with disabilities and other post-secondary programs so that those unable to work full-time can apply. Second, establish a portable federal rent supplement program to ensure access to adequate safe housing as well as mobility.

Imagine for a moment a national mandate in which the least privileged women are put first, strengthening the potential, prosperity, and equality of all women in Canada.

Thank you.

[Brenda Thompson, Member, Board, Canada Without Poverty]

Good afternoon, Madam Chair, committee members, and all others present.

I would like to thank you for the opportunity to share my experiences and to address this committee, and to thank you for continuing to work on the very important topic of women's leadership and prosperity in Canada.

I come to you with my credentials as the VP of Canada Without Poverty, as a non-profit worker in a women's resource centre, as a former low-income single mother, and as author of the “Single Mothers' Survival Guide” for Nova Scotia.

I grew up in a rural family that was very poor. My parents married young, and worked hard to move us into the middle class in Nova Scotia. At the age of 20, I had a high school education and was a waitress when I became pregnant with my first daughter. Her father left me in my third month of pregnancy and never participated in our lives again. He also did not pay child support, and was not made to pay child support.

When my first daughter was nine months old, I attended community college and got a two-year diploma in hospitality management. My student loan for these two years went to pay my child care. After graduating second in a class of 55, the only job I could find was as a waitress—again.

After two years of working as a waitress, with my family providing child care, two things happened. I was offered a subsidized child care spot in a local day care and I was offered a home in a CMHA-funded housing co-op. I decided to take the leap and get a better education to try to get a better job. I took a B.A. in women's studies at Mount Saint Vincent University and an M.A. in sociology at Acadia University, graduating with a 4.3 GPA with my M.A. in sociology.

These two programs, subsidized day care and affordable social housing, helped me immensely to achieve my goals of a better education. Without the child care of $35 a month, I could not have afforded to attend university. It also gave my working family members a much-needed break after years of filling the gap of child care.

The subsidized social housing co-op gave me an affordable, warm, safe home for my daughter and me. In addition, it gave me a sense of community with our co-op meetings and social events such as picnics. The people in the co-op were just like me, working hard to make a better place for our families and for our communities.

I graduated and went on to get decent paying employment in my field. Many years later, I found myself unemployed and a low-income single mother living in rural Nova Scotia, but this time I had an education and child support. In rural Nova Scotia, however, it is very difficult to find a decently paid job in any field. I had to stay in the area for parental access and custody issues with the other parent, which left me in a difficult position. I took whatever jobs I could find that I could do from my home while taking care of my child. For more than a year, my second daughter and I lived on $800 a month, as the only jobs that were available outside the home would not even pay the cost of child care, which was $500, and rent, which was another $500 a month, plus all the other expenses related to housing and child rearing.

It was only when my daughter was four years old that subsidized child care became available in our local town day care. I snapped up the opportunity, and then could take a job that did not pay very well but enabled me to participate in the economy and go back to work full time. These two very valuable programs enabled me to move my daughters and I into full participation in the economy, our culture, and our democratic process. Without these two programs, I believe we would still be mired in poverty and struggling to make ends meet.

Based on my experiences, I would like to make the following two recommendations: one, a national child care strategy that would make child care affordable and accessible to traditional and non-traditional family units, regardless of where they live; and two, a national housing strategy that enables women to have safe, adequate, and affordable housing.

I thank the committee for taking the time to listen to me. I would like to answer any questions you may have.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you for your testimonies.

Ms. Truppe, you have seven minutes.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Welcome, and thank you for sharing your stories.

Thank you for informing us a bit on Startup Canada. I'm somewhat familiar with Startup Canada, because I've met and have been speaking to Joel Adams and Amanda Stratton from Startup London. They do a lot of great things. You're doing a great job with the 800,000 members that I think you said you have; that's really wonderful.

Ms. Lennox, I can't remember if you said this or if I had read this, but I think you said that you've facilitated the mentorship of 20,000 entrepreneurs, running activities and daily events. How do you facilitate memberships of 20,000—or any other number, for that matter? Is it online, is it by phone, is it one on one, or do they meet in the same city?

[Victoria Lennox]

It's all of the above.

Across Canada, there are mentors who are supporting entrepreneurs. Sometimes a mentor in Medicine Hat is exactly the right mentor for an entrepreneur in Fredericton. Sometimes it's online entrepreneurship. Other times it's supporting existing mentorship events that are already happening.

Every year, during Global Entrepreneurship Week, in November, we run something called the Canadian Mentorship Challenge. We partner with organizations across Canada—from rural Nova Scotia, in Truro, to Toronto—to encourage mentorship to happen and to encourage those connections. We also run programs online every week, through Twitter, Facebook, Google hangouts. It's any way that we can connect entrepreneurs with each other so that they can make meeting connections.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Just so everyone is clear, someone in London who wants to connect with somebody in Nova Scotia or Calgary, or anywhere that's not London, basically, would go on your website. They would determine that they would like some form of mentorship and they determine if they want to go online, or is there....? I've seen websites where there are live people on there, for example, from a business, and they can type in their questions right away and get answers. Or do they have to send an e-mail and then they connect and work out a time?

[Victoria Lennox]

We're two years old now, so right now it's quite manual and it's all entrepreneur-led. It's quite good because we're entrepreneurs connecting other entrepreneurs.

This summer we're launching a platform that we've been building for two years, called Startup Connect, and that's where the live feed will come on. You can connect with an entrepreneur immediately and you can see that they're online and that they have the time and the willingness to speak with you. It isn't just entrepreneur to entrepreneur with Startup Connect. It's also financial service providers, legal experts, the key people who need to be part of an entrepreneur's experience to create more successful companies.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

The entrepreneurs are obviously men and women. Do we have stats on how many of your, say, 800,000 members—?

[Victoria Lennox]

It's 80,000.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Oh, it's 80,000.

[Victoria Lennox]

Eventually it will be 800,000, just give us a few years.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

That would be nice.

I've just increased it for you.

[Victoria Lennox]

It's 80,000.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Okay.

What would be the percentage of women entrepreneurs?

[Victoria Lennox]

We just looked at this for our anniversary, and it's about 40% who are women. Not all of those 40% are the entrepreneurs, the sole proprietors. Many of them are the marketing co-founder or a co-founder with a male colleague. It is 14% who have wholly women-owned companies.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

What have you found has been helpful for women entrepreneurs? Is there something that sticks out in your mind?

[Victoria Lennox]

There's a growing community of women entrepreneurs who are helping each other. There are really cool networks now, like Ladies Learning Code, where they are learning how to code together. In B.C., there's the women's entrepreneur council, which is facilitating entrepreneurship in the province. Peer networks are meaningful in encouraging entrepreneurial behaviour. There's the Women's Enterprise Initiative that's all across western Canada, and it's been encouraging to see the results of their programs. But really it's the grassroots networks, through Ladies Learning Code, through Startup London, and how they connect to each other, that organic network, that seems to be making a difference.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

In Ontario, for example, how many start-ups would you have? You have Startup London, and then—

[Victoria Lennox]

In Ontario, we have Startup London, Startup Niagara, Startup Sault Ste. Marie, Startup Ottawa, and Startup Waterloo. But we would love to have a Startup community in every community across Canada. We would love it to be like the post office or community centre, the place where people go to innovate and to try new things.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

That's great. Thank you.

In your opinion as an entrepreneur, would you say—and I think you might have even mentioned it—that women entrepreneurs face more barriers than male entrepreneurs? What would be their biggest challenge that maybe male entrepreneurs don't have?

[Victoria Lennox]

I think it was really interesting that Laura said they don't feel like they're enough. I think there are a lot of perceptions that they're not good enough to be an entrepreneur on their own and they need a male colleague.

I got a call this week from Startup Calgary, and they are facing harassment issues with some of the male members not treating women as they should be treated—really poor behaviour.

It's educating the start-up community and entrepreneurs in this community that tends to be male-dominated, getting that community ready to welcome entrepreneurs who are women, and embracing them and making them feel comfortable. It's everything from child care to overall welcoming of women, and understanding women's issues and making women feel comfortable. There are some serious barriers that exist. If we look at our Startup communities across Canada, the majority are male-led.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

So when you said you had that call from I think Calgary.... Did you say Calgary?