Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to thank all of you for being with us today and taking time to be with us. You certainly have all been very successful in your fields, but along the way we know that you have encountered many obstacles. You are to be congratulated for having overcome these obstacles.
My first question is to Jill Earthy.
I want to congratulate you on the work you have done. It certainly is very promising and very rewarding, and I know you put your heart and soul into it just by the presentation that you gave us here today. I'm also glad to hear you note that, as a result of the funding, we are able to offer worthwhile support to women. This is very important to our committee and to our government to see that we are focusing on helping women in whatever way we can.
As a former teacher, I certainly appreciate the work you are doing as mentors, because I think we need a lot of mentors along the way. Like you said, even today we still can use mentors to show us what the best practices are and where we can head so that we can take people in the right direction.
Has your organization noticed any increase or has it noticed a decrease in the number of female entrepreneurs in recent years? Why do you think this is happening?