Mr. Speaker, I know we are all looking forward to hearing the Minister of Finance deliver federal budget 2018 later this afternoon, with the anticipated focus on gender equity and increasing women's participation in the workforce.
Recently in my riding of Davenport, I met with artists, creators, and other members of cultural industries. What came out of it was the need to focus on the lack of female representation and diverse female representation on the boards of artistic and cultural organizations, as well as the need to significantly increase the number of female artistic directors across Canada. I am pleased that the heritage committee has agreed to study this issue, and I look forward to its recommendations.
I am proud of our Prime Minister and our cabinet for their leadership on gender equity, and for ensuring a gender lens in every dimension of the work we are undertaking on behalf of all Canadians. As the Secretary General recently said, “Societies are better when there is full equality in girls' access to education and in women and girls' access to the labour markets, with equal work and equal pay and equal participation in the different institutions of the civil and political society.”
Thanks—