Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thanks, people, for being here today. It's wonderful to see you. Thanks for your passion and what you do, especially in these crazy times. I think we all agree that COVID has certainly turned the world upside down.
Ms. Labelle, it's great to see your organization, because you can truly talk about the women entrepreneurship strategy, and I'm sure you know that $15 million was added to that. The basis of the strategy is the entrepreneurship fund itself, the ecosystem fund, the knowledge hub, and of course the expert panel. That was started long before the pandemic, so I hope the increase of $15 million is going to help organizations such as yours and others continue to do some great work.
Ms. Pohlmann, you made some great comments. I'm from a very large rural riding, and my colleague MP Shin was going down the line of questioning that I was by asking about what we have done and the success stories of those small businesses and female entrepreneurs who have turned the corner and are doing some great work. A lot of it is changing their product on the fly.
I liked your comment, your thoughts on how we can encourage more businesses to regroup, refocus and look at the new normal that we're coming to. I think we all agree that there will be a new normal.
I also liked your comment on the impact of rural small businesses operated by women. I too, in my riding, have many seasonal businesses, so I'd love your thoughts on the impact on rural seasonal businesses and how we can help women through all our programs.
The one that, to me, has helped most of the people who have fallen through the cracks is the RRRF, the regional relief and recovery fund. That has helped so many people in my riding.
I'd like your comments on rural businesses and how we help women in business retool and regroup in this new normal.