Thank you, Madam Chair. We're going to have get you a bigger pen.
Minister, it's always a pleasure to have you and your officials here. The work that you and your team have done for the last five years, going from Status of Women to now a full-blown department, Women and Gender Equality Canada, or WAGE, as well as the increase in the budgets and the work that's being done on the ground, I know is felt in my riding.
As you've heard me say many times, and many of my colleagues have heard me say, I have a very large rural riding. It has a land mass bigger than Switzerland, with lots of tiny, beautiful communities. I have four small status of women's groups in rural areas, in Port aux Basques, Stephenville, Corner Brook and Port Saunders. There you have people with one or two paid positions and the rest are volunteers doing great work on the ground.
I want to bring up the rural aspect, because you are also the minister responsible for rural economic development.
I'd like your comments on how the two interact: women and women in rural areas. I know our government has a huge commitment on broadband and the initiatives there. How do you see them interacting with women and rural women?