Status of Women committee  I wish I could take credit for it, but I can't. The assessment of the gender gap report is based on four key factors. There's economic participation and opportunities for women, there's educational attainment, political empowerment, and health and survival. The areas in which Canada has certainly made progress are in economic participation and opportunity, as well as political empowerment.

Status of Women committee  We certainly encourage this type of project. We now have a few that are already at the funding stage. We are in the process of working with CanNor—the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency—to develop training for aboriginal women to work in mines. We have also asked the regional economic development agencies to work with us, to try to target work in these areas more and more.

Status of Women committee  Status of Women Canada did not ask Sisters in Spirit to change how it operates or its direction. One five-year project was signed by the Government of Canada in 2005. The purpose of this project was to research the issue of aboriginal women who have disappeared and been killed and to raise awareness about it.

Status of Women committee  I am going to ask Linda to give us those details.

Status of Women committee  Yes. Since the minister's announcement in June, women's program staff have implemented the new process for developing and assessing applications to the women's program. The staff provide advice and professional assistance to groups throughout the proposal development stage, including providing feedback on project ideas at an early stage of development.

Status of Women committee  We are talking about Women in Canada, a guide published in 2005 and a few other times beforehand.

Status of Women committee  Right. The $129,000 is the transfer received under supplementary estimates (B). Other transfers will be allocated in supplementary estimates (C).

Status of Women committee  It isn't a number of people. Statistics Canada uses a number of information sources, including the census, the GSS and the NHS. I don't know all the terminology.

Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  We also ensured that we brought to the table representatives from departments that have made a financial contribution and people from Statistics Canada to make certain that the information gathered as part of the chapters will be complete and suitable. The objective is to enable the departments to work on the comparative analyses of the genders.

Status of Women committee  Yes, absolutely.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the question. I would like to address the first point on the transfer to the Atlantic Ballet Theatre of $317,000 last year. At first sight, transferring money to a ballet organization may not obviously give the impression of addressing questions of violence, but I have to say it has been an extremely powerful investment in the area of addressing—

Status of Women committee  The launch will be February 14, Valentine's Day, at the National Arts Centre—that is, the launch of the production. They have already launched a shorter version of a video that is being used in schools and in different forums across the country. It was presented at the Governor General's women's leadership conference recently.

Status of Women committee  I wouldn't be able to answer that question, but I can say that—

Status of Women committee  Thank you very much. My opening statement will be taking the better part of my ten minutes, but if the committee would permit, I would like to introduce the members with me today. I have Linda Savoie, who's the director general of the women's program; Sébastien Goupil, whom I believe some of you have met at an earlier appearance on the census; and Johanne Tremblay, who is the CFO for the organization.