Status of Women committee  I think it is very important for all of you to keep the issue hot in the House. If the issue is kept suppressed and the grassroots out there are not getting the message, either through the media or through you, it will die. So it's very important. You all have a role to play to make this happen.

Status of Women committee  It's hard to know where to begin because there have been so many cuts. I think one that is of huge significance is the whole child care issue and the fact that we don't have a pan-Canadian child care system. There are the cuts to adult literacy, which again tie in with a person's economic possibilities--it doesn't matter if it's women or men.

Status of Women committee  We've had a policy on homelessness and housing for a long time. It's of great concern. It just ties in with the whole economic situation of women. It ties in with the lack of opportunity they have and the lack of advancement because of that. So yes, it's a huge concern.

Status of Women committee  I think the very first thing you have to do is make sure that equality gets back into the mandate of Status of Women, to strengthen it, because it really is the essence of that program. That, I would say, is number one. Number two is to keep supporting the groups, through the women's program, that look into these programs we're talking about, to look into what's going on underneath, because what's happening now is the social fabric that was holding up society is being slashed and people are falling through.

Status of Women committee  We definitely need the programs that fund advocacy and research. It's absolutely vital. The CFUW benefits from that research. When you have volunteers out there, there just isn't the money for us to get that kind of research. We need it; we need it to continue.

Status of Women committee  No, it did not. We applied in the eighties, I think around 1986, for a grant. It was a one-time project grant for a workshop and a manual. I have to say that we've updated and are still using the manual.

Status of Women committee  It was a project, yes. We've been totally self-funded since our founding in 1919.

Status of Women committee  They're eligible for...?

Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  That's right.

Status of Women committee  We first met with the minister on October 3. Ten organizations were invited. Our organization of 10,000 women had to be represented by somebody who was also representing the National Council of Women—so two self-funded groups. At that meeting, the minister said that women already have equality.

Status of Women committee  I don't think anybody would disagree that we should be finding solutions to the problem. We're here to try to find solutions, but the solutions aren't just taking x amount of dollars and putting them into a specific group. Getting at the systemic, underlying causes, the root causes, requires ongoing research.

Status of Women committee  It definitely seems as if women's voices are being silenced. CFUW is upset that that is happening. At our urging, one of our presidents, Laura Sabia, formed the Royal Commission on the Status of Women. From that, of course, the Status of Women was born to provide and look after equality.

Status of Women committee  CFUW is a self-funded organization, as I mentioned. But we have 122 clubs in that many cities and towns across the country. Our members work and liaise with women who are in the offices. I'm getting messages, for example, from Vancouver that the Young Wolves Lodge program is due to be cut on March 31.

Status of Women committee  Can I go first, Karen? We think the cuts are really a drop in the bucket when it comes to the whole budget. This department, Status of Women, is one of the departments that receives amongst the lowest budget allocations. The cuts will take us back not just a little bit, but decades.