Today marks the start of Gender Equality Week, an occasion to recognize the importance of Gender Equality not just for women and gender diverse communities, but for all Canadians. It’s also a time to celebrate the significant achievements that Canada has made in advancing gender equality here at home, as well as the many activists and advocates who are working to advance gender equality across the nation.

Despite significant progress, Canadian women are often left to face unique and systemic barriers – challenges that have only been amplified by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. From the very beginning of our mandate, our government has been committed to investing in women and girls to help them overcome these barriers, because we know that when women succeed, Canada thrives.

That’s why we recently reappointed Karen Jensen as Canada’s federal Pay Equity Commissioner, who will help to ensure that we are able to continue to move forward on our commitment to implement proactive pay equity. It’s also why we’ve been increasing the number of women in STEM, investing in women-led businesses, strengthening the Canada Child Benefit to help more families, and investing in Canada’s network of shelters and transition homes to help ensure that those fleeing domestic violence have a place to turn.

Building on these measures, Minister Bibeau announced on Friday that the Farm Credit Canada’s Women Entrepreneur Program has helped 1,391 women with loans, doubling the program to nearly $1 billion. Through the Women Entrepreneur Program, FCC assists women in agriculture, agribusiness and food with lending, enhancing events and creating resources specifically for women entrepreneurs to start or grow their businesses. For more details on this extension, see the following news release.