Thank you, Mr. Serré, for your leadership and hard work.
MP Serré, I know this has been a difficult time for you and your team, and despite those challenges, you've helped your community get connected to high-speed Internet, and here you are championing women and gender equality.
The $100-million feminist response and recovery fund, for which we continue to encourage applications, is different from previous funds in that it focuses particularly on those populations that are underserved, under-represented and hardest hit by COVID. Black, indigenous, racialized, rural, young, seniors, we know that these particular groups as well as LGBTQ2 Canadians have been hardest hit by COVID.
This fund is also very flexible in that unless you are a private entity, you qualify for funding. The idea here is that if you have a solution to ensure the health and safety of women and non-binary folks, if you have a solution to help improve the workforce participation of women in this pandemic and moving forward, and if you have ways that you can increase the representation of diverse women's voices around decision-making tables, we want to work with you, and we encourage you to apply. Applications are open until March 24.