WBE Canada supports the “Women Entrepreneurship Strategy” announced by the Liberal Government

February 27, 2018

WBE Canada supports the “Women Entrepreneurship Strategy” announced today in the Liberal’s 2018 Federal Budget.

WBE Canada was honoured to be invited to Ottawa today in advance of the Liberal Government’s third federal budget. Mary Anderson, President of WBE Canada shares highlights from the budget that clearly signal positive change for Canadian women entrepreneurs through the creation of the “Women Entrepreneurship Strategy”.

The federal government procurement policy offers a new roadmap for all business in Canada with procurement departments to make conscious decisions to consider not only what they buy but from whom they are buying. This is a huge step towards enabling women business growth and hopefully in the near future tax relief policies for businesses that implement supplier diversity programs.

Specific measures that were announced include removing barriers to result in new opportunities for women-owned businesses to win contracts with the federal government. This budget offers help to companies owned by women that want to grow. After reviewing the Liberal Budget, Mary Anderson offered the following key points:

  • The government is the single largest buyer of goods and services in Canada and has set a target to increase the participation rate for women-owned small and medium-sized businesses in the federal procurement supply chain to 15 percent.
  • Currently, only 10 percent of the SMEs who participate in federal procurement are women-owned. This Government intends to introduce measures to increase this participation rate by 50 percent (to at least 15 percent), in order to reflect the current proportion of SMEs that are led by women entrepreneurs in the broader population.
  • The Government further plans to increase support for women-owned businesses by making available $1.65 billion over three years in new financing for women entrepreneurs through Business Development Bank of Canada and Export Development Canada.
  • The new Women’s Entrepreneurship Strategy will comprehensively address barriers facing women entrepreneurs starting or growing businesses through four main pillars: 1) Helping Women-Owned Businesses Grow; 2) Increasing access to capital; 3) Improving Access to Federal Business Innovation Programming; 4) Enhancing Data and Knowledge

Today’s federal budget is a means to deliver on promises. Statistics Canada data show less than 10 percent of companies with 100 employees or more are owned by women. Women-owned businesses are also not reaching scale as quickly or as often as they could be. Companies owned by women generate just $1.4-million in annual average revenue, compared with $3.3-million for their male-owned counterparts.

Clearly, this budget recognized barriers currently faced by women entrepreneurs and seeks specific enablers extending beyond federal procurement. Canada has exceptional, talented women entrepreneurs with ambitions to scale their firms to contribute to the strong Canadian economy.

For further information contact:

Mary Anderson, President WBE Canada
Tel: (416) 646-6233
Email: concierge@wbecanada.ca

WBE Canada

WBE Canada is the bridge between corporate and public procurement, and Canadian women business enterprises. As a third-party certifier of businesses owned, managed, and controlled by women, we are the only national non-profit certifier based in Canada working to enable women business enterprises to access corporate supply chains since March 2009.

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