Status of Women Committee on May 5th, 2014

[Victoria Lennox]

When we went on our national tour two years ago, when we kick-started Startup Canada, the two things that came up time and again—and I'm sure there are other things that my colleagues can bring up—was a lot about culture, relatable role models, and finding it really difficult to see yourself in the community and the ecosystem, creating companies that are high growth and really driving that forward, so it's around culture and role models, number one. Number two, I'll come back to child care, especially for young women, young families, single women who see becoming an entrepreneur as potentially their only way of achieving economic independence, so providing them with the support that they need to start their own companies from home and how to scale that over time.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

Thank you.

I also want to take this opportunity to congratulate you, Victoria, on taking the initiative at such a young age to go with it and run with it. When you look back and see all the achievements you have made, you must be very proud of the work you have done. I know all of us here today feel very proud of what you have accomplished.

I wonder if you can tell us about your grassroots approach to entrepreneurship, how this came about, and some of the ups and downs that you probably have encountered along the way.

[Victoria Lennox]

There are other organizations like Startup Canada across the world. There's StartUp Britain, Start-Up Chile, and Startup America. When I was seeing what they were doing, it was very top-down government led, and I actually felt the government was doing an okay job supporting start-ups.

I came back to Canada through the recruitment of policy leaders program and I worked at Industry Canada. I felt, well, there's stuff we can do, but actually we need a culture shift, and that has to come from the bottom up, mobilizing entrepreneurs. One of the biggest challenges Canada faces is our geography, so we need to really connect the ideas and connect the different pieces. We are far too small of a population to be so siloed, so we really need to leverage resources.

I felt a lot of the work that needed to be done had to happen on the ground floor with entrepreneurs connecting with each other, so that's what we set out to do. I feel like I'm a public servant working outside of the public service, and that's what motivates me to continue to drive Startup Canada. It's really just connecting the pieces so that we can move forward faster together.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

How much time do I have left?

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Two and a half minutes....

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

We also know that some women really pick up the ball and go with it. In your view why are some women more likely to pursue business development than others?

[Victoria Lennox]

It's if you have people in your life who have been entrepreneurs. If your mom or your dad own their own business or you have a role model in your life who has influenced you, but if your parents or your role models.... If you don't know that entrepreneurship is a viable career option, you're not even going to think about it.

For me, I didn't even know about entrepreneurship as a vehicle for change until I went into my master's in my twenties and joined my student club. So I think it's finding those points of contact with people, whether it's through education or extracurricular activities. Peer-led influences matter a whole lot, so encouraging those points of contact are really important. Junior Achievement, for instance, is doing amazing work for young people across Canada. So is Shad Valley, which encourages more science-based entrepreneurship. That's what my thoughts are.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Duncan, you have seven minutes.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to all of you for your stories and for your recommendations. I'm going to try and pick up on as many of them as I can.

I'll start with Startup Canada. You talked about what the provinces are doing. You said B.C. is doing good things. Can you tell us what you would like to see the federal government doing to make a difference, please?

[Victoria Lennox]

I think leadership is really important, so striking an advisory council for the status of women on women's entrepreneurship is number one. Then we should work to develop some concrete recommendations that we could arrive at fairly quickly and then just execute.

I think one of the key things we could do in Canada at a national level is to have a national mentorship program for women entrepreneurs to encourage women to support each other. Those are the two things that I think are high impact, low resource-intensive, and can get us going. Then once you have that collective of key organizations, key experts, then you just move forward from there. But I think high impact, low resource-intensive steps can happen quite quickly. I would strike an advisory council that demonstrates national leadership.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

How would you form that advisory council? Who would you like to see on it?

[Victoria Lennox]

There are key influences. There's a handful of people who are really driving the space in Canada, so reach out to them. There are those who are already doing it without being asked to do it. It's people like Barbara Orser at the University of Ottawa. It's the women's enterprise centre CEO, Tracy Scarlett, who's now based in Toronto. It's people like this who are really driving things forward and encouraging private sector leadership as well. RBC has demonstrated that they're playing a big role in female entrepreneurship, getting them involved and helping them to take a lead.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you so much.

You talked about supporting girls in STEM. Can you give some specific recommendations around that broader one? What would you like to see the federal government doing to encourage girls to get involved in science, technology, engineering, and math?

[Victoria Lennox]

I think you could develop a roster of role models and tell their stories. That's not difficult to do—again, low resource-intensive, high impact. Then you provide that collateral to education institutions and non-profits across Canada. I think what you can do is very similar to the last budget. Not a lot of money is needed to kick-start an internship program, but rather a catalyst fund to encourage girls, projects, and STEM entrepreneurship. We need to reach the non-profit sector across Canada in rural communities and major urban centres that require this type of support. We need a catalyst fund as a kick-start, to provide incentive for these activities in order to get non-profits thinking this way.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

At what point do you think we have to get girls inspired?

[Victoria Lennox]

Early.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

We need to do it early on to get them interested. Is there something we could be doing in school such as providing links between school and business?

[Victoria Lennox]

Sure we can. We can develop a girls-only chapter of Junior Achievement. I think that would be fun. There's a start-up in the States called GoldieBlox. It's girls' reactions to Lego. It's really creating a generation of young women who understand physics and who can build really cool things. I think it's about play. I think it's about what we put on television. You can leverage TVO and public sector channels for mainstream approaches, but I think early.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Incentives, you mentioned incentives several times. What are the incentives you're looking for? What would be the recommendation to the committee?

[Victoria Lennox]

I think there are two key incentives that I'd love to see government provide.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

At the federal level...?

[Victoria Lennox]

At the federal level. I think one thing government can do is to recognize; provide recognitions and awards for outstanding achievements in advancing entrepreneurship among women. Things like this provide incentive for the ecosystem. It's a sign that this is important to government and important to Canada. That's number one.

Then a financial kick-starter matching it with private funds. For instance, saying we're going to allocate $2 million over five years in order to kick-start STEM activities for young girls and encourage the next generation of women start-ups.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

If you would like to send to the committee the specific recommendations that you would like, the financial recommendations, we'd like to hear them.

To Canada Without Poverty, I'd like to ask a number of questions. I'll start with child care because both of you have mentioned this as well as Startup Canada. What do we need?

[Brenda Thompson]

What we've been needing for decades is a national child care strategy. It lifted me out of poverty, and my daughters, and it has helped other women who have had the opportunity to have affordable subsidized child care. It's the key.