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Results: 1 - 15 of 17
View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, Madam Chair.
It's a real pleasure for me to be here. I'd like to start by thanking our three witnesses for their terrific testimony from such different areas of women's lives. I think it's worth it for all of us to pause and reflect on how important this conversation is. Also, at least for me, it's shocking that we're still having these conversations.
My mother graduated from U of A law school in 1970. I remember being so proud of her as a pioneering Canadian professional and feminist, but really being confident as her daughter that these kinds of conversations, which are very familiar to me from my mom's kitchen, would not be ones that I would be having. I think our generation, the women around this table, have to make sure our daughters don't have these conversations 20 or 30 years from now.
Ms. McDonald spoke about how progress can happen, but that it's very slow. I think we collectively have to decide to speed it up.
I have a few questions.
Ms. McDonald, I was interested in your comments about women on boards. I would love to know your view on how strong the nudge from legislation should be. What's your view on quotas for boards, on a comply-or-explain kind of policy? Is there a country that you think gets this right?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
I agree with you, and I like your comments about B-corps. Would you like to see some Canadian legislation that encourages them? Some states in the U.S. and Latin American countries have it.
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
I'd like to ask Ms. Archer one last question.
Thanks for that great presentation. It was wonderful to see you in Edmonton in the summer. You identified, as you did in Edmonton, this very small funding gap for women, especially, say, a single mother with kids who wants to get training and boost their well-being, their family's and the community's. How would you suggest we go about closing that? Would it be an expansion of what we think of as student loans? Would it be an expansion of job training? What's the solution?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Is there a specific way that you would extend that? Is there one program which you think should be expanded?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
I'd like to go back to Ms. McDonald.
I'd like to start by saying I really appreciate your point about the not accidental coincidence that in professions and in academic areas where we see women starting to succeed, we start to see a pay differential opening up. I felt that very much when I was a reporter in the Soviet Union. I discovered that what we would call finance directors in factories were all women and they were paid very little, and also all the doctors were women and they were paid very little. There is a social component to high-and low-paid professions.
I was really interested in your comments about access to capital, and that it is difficult particularly for women entrepreneurs. Is there anything we can do about that?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Feminist revolution, for sure, but what are our steps?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Finance is a heavily regulated industry. Is there maybe some kind of reporting that we should start making obligatory just to be saying, separating out, how many loans are going to...?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much.
I want to go back to Ms. Archer in Edmonton.
I think we've all been really impressed, as I was over the summer, with the great work of your program. I'd like to ask you whether from the perspective of the work you're doing you think we should be increasing the work of apprenticeship programs and focus maybe specifically on young women earlier in their lives, maybe in high school. Is there an opportunity there?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
That sounds really smart and intriguing. What would pre-apprenticeship training or education be? Can you describe your ideal a little bit?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Do you think being really specific with young women and girls about the financial differential is something that we're not doing, and would that make a difference?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ms. McDonald, one of the things that has come out very strikingly in your testimony is that it's not a pipeline problem when it comes to women on boards and in senior corporate management. That's not a truth universally acknowledged, so it's great to hear you say that.
There are women who are not being appointed to those positions of power. Is there an opportunity for the government to use its leverage as a major client and procurer to help break through this?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Can having women on the list be part of the comply or explain regime that you'd be in favour of?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
You've thought about this a lot. Do you have a figure in mind that you think should be the comply or explain threshold, a percentage of women on boards that we should be aiming for?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Ms. Archer, I'm particularly grateful that you got up so early in the morning in Edmonton to be with us.
We heard from Ms. McDonald about the importance of entrepreneurship and the difficulty that women have getting access to capital. In the trades that you're helping women break into, something that can be very powerful for women is to go from being a skilled tradeswoman employee to running her own small business and maybe large business. Do you see women in the trades making that transition and what are the barriers if they're encountering any?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
What are the particular hurdles? Is it what we're hearing from Ms. McDonald, that it's just harder for women, that they're just not taken as seriously?
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