Your Questions, Answered: Q&A with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland

ICYMI: Earlier this year, The51 hosted the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, for a hard-hitting conversation about women in Canada’s economic future.

We received SO many great questions from our attendees that we couldn’t fit it all into just one session. We passed along your burning questions to the the Honorable Chrystia Freeland, and she filled us all the way in.

Missed the event? Watch the full Q&A here.

What is getting in the way of us moving this conversation around women’s participation in the economy from being a “nice” box-checking exercise into being a strategic imperative, especially now? Any suggestions? -Lisa

It is already a strategic imperative. In work done by the Boston Consulting Group, they found that for every dollar of investment raised, women-run start-ups generated $0.78 in revenue, whereas male-run start-ups generated $0.31.

Women, particularly those with young children, have lower labour market participation rates than men. In 2019, only 83 per cent of women between the ages of 25 and 44 participated in the labour force, whereas men in the same age range participated at a rate of 91 per cent. Young women with children are at higher risk of not being in education, employment or training.

Our government believes that early learning and child care are critical pieces of social infrastructure and that it will drive growth across our economy, growth that will be enjoyed by all Canadians. TD Economics has pointed to a range of studies that have shown that for every dollar spent on early childhood education, the broader economy receives between $1.50 and $2.80 in return. But, we all know there are many obstacles women still have to over come.

COVID-19 has affected all Canadians, but women have been disproportionately affected. In the labour market, women were hit earlier and harder, and their jobs continue to recover more slowly. Long-standing gender inequities have only been amplified over the course of the pandemic—and it has put decades of hard-fought gains for women in the workplace at risk. That is why it is important that groups such as the51 are there to bring women together, to provide an ecosystem, community, support, and build awareness about the economic benefit. 

Better data is also needed to build a strong economic case. Our recent budget proposes to invest $172 million over five years for Statistics Canada to gather disaggregated data that can help address the power gap between men and women and bring fairness and inclusion considerations into decision making, at all levels.

If half of our population is not reaching their economic potential, that is a missed economic opportunity for everyone.

Can we know more about the Invest In Yourself program, what exactly does this entail? -Emily

Our budget proposes to allow immediate expensing of up to $1.5 million of eligible investments by Canadian-controlled private corporations in each of the next three years. This incentive targets short- and medium-term capital investments that can accelerate our recovery. This includes investments in a broad range of assets, including, helping to further incentivize businesses to transition to a more productive, knowledge-intensive economy and will include digital assets and intellectual property. This will help drive growth and create jobs, and will support and estimated 325,000 businesses in making critical investments to grow their output.

While SMEs need tech + access to capital, one huge point that creates friction, adds costs & is inefficiencies are administrative regulations that drag performance. For example, having a sole proprietor who is incorporated complete the same governance processes (e.g., holding annual Board of Directors meetings with themselves) that large established corporations undertake.

What can be done to go through the entrepreneurial journey and remove or reduce these costly financial barriers to accelerating entrepreneurial growth? -Chrystia C

Our government has been working to make improvements to our regulatory system and remove outdated any redundant requirements. We also have an External Advisory Committee on Regulatory Competitiveness that provides expert advice to ensure that regulatory modernization is informed by the businesses and Canadians that are affected. Our recent budget to continue this work and renew the External Advisory Committee on Regulatory Competitiveness and to continue targeted regulatory reviews. 

We are also working to remove interprovincial trade barriers that hold back Canadian businesses from reaching the full force of the Canadian market. Through our budget we are accelerating this work, and collaborating with willing partners to create a repository of open and accessible trade data that can identify barriers such a licensing and professional certification requirements, so that we can work together to reduce trade barriers like these. 

We also launched the $101.4 million Small Business and Entrepreneurship Development Program in our budget. This program streamlines support for underrepresented and equity deserving entrepreneurs. It helps entrepreneurs who are racialized, young, LGBTQ2, and more, to access funding, capital, mentorship, financial planning services, so that they can grow. This will help all Canadians have an equal chance to succeed and contribute to economic recovery and growth.

Women still face unique and systemic barriers to starting and growing a business. Would you consider making access to funds more available to women on a faster path? -Asha

Canadian women entrepreneurs are critically important to the strength and success of our economy. Yet women still face unique and systemic barriers to starting and growing a business. 

In 2018, we introduced the Women’s Entrepreneurship Strategy, which helps women start and grow their business, including by improving access to financing. The program provides lending through BDC and facilitates trade through EDC. Our budget committed to providing an additional almost $147 million, over four years, to strengthen the strategy. In the budget, we also announced that BDC will seek to support 19,000 direct women-owned businesses in 2024, and increase of nearly 7,000. 

We are also establishing a $15 million three-year pilot contribution program for stakeholders working to make the equity investment environment more inclusive of women and diverse groups. 

The budget also renewed our Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative, including a new $50 million Inclusive Growth Stream that will help underrepresented groups, including women and racialized communities, access venture capital.

More information on Women’s Entrepreneurship Strategy here.

What’s meant by the "tech investments" mentioned by the small business cabinet minister? Can we have more details as it pertains to those "programs" you have mentioned? How are the "programs" you are mentioning any different from what currently exists? -Latifa

We recently launched a game-changing new program, the Canada Digital Adoption Program. We designed this new program in recognition of the fact that the future and resilience of Canada’s small businesses depends on their ability to adopt new technologies. We propose to invest $4 billion, to help up to 160,000 small and medium-sized businesses buy the new technologies they need to grow.

The program will provide businesses with advice and assistance they need to get the most out of these technologies by training 28,000 young Canadians—a Canadian technology corps—who will provide these services. On July 12th, our government announced the launch of a call for applications for customer-facing businesses, like small retail or service businesses, so they can digitize and adopt e-commerce strategies. 

We’re also providing $2.6 billion over four years to the Business Development Bank of Canada to help small- and medium-sized businesses finance technology adoption, as well as additional microgrants to smaller businesses to help with technology adoption. 

These groundbreaking new investments will help Canadian small businesses become be part of the growing digital economy, be more competitive in Canada and abroad, and ensure they have the tools and advice they need for a strong of the recovery, 

Are women-led social purpose organizations included in that growth? There are many community-based solutions that have demonstrated impact with their programming but need help to scale to more communities. These organizations need help to scale. -Susan

Our budget makes specific proposals to support social purpose organizations. Much of the work done to address the complex issues our communities face—whether social, economic, environmental, or otherwise—is done by social purpose organizations. And that work is often done by the women, racialized Canadians, newcomers, and young people who work at these organizations in high numbers. 

Our budget proposed to launch planned disbursements of the $755 million Social Finance Fund and deploy up to $220 million over its first two years. It is estimated that the Social Finance Fund could attract up to $1.5 billion in private sector capital to support the development of the social finance market, which will help these organizations scale up and create thousands of new jobs, while driving positive social change.

We also proposed to invest $200 million to establish a new Black-led Philanthropic Endowment Fund that would create a sustainable source of funding for a variety of Black Canadian-led organizations, including social purpose organizations. One of the aims of this fund is to improve the economic outcomes in Black communities.

Social purpose organizations also need support to build the skills and capacity needed to access social finance opportunities. So we also proposed to renew the Investment Readiness. This program supports charities, non-profits, and social purpose organizations in capacity-building activities such as business plan development, expanding products and services, skills development, and hiring.

What is the plan for working with provinces who are not jumping on to the $10/day childcare program? Specifically, how will this program be made palatable in Alberta? -Carly

We have outlined a plan for a transformational, generational investment that benefits parents, kids, and educators in every corner of this country. Alberta families and parents will benefit from lower fees, better access and a strong, early learning system for our kids.  It’s also a proven way to increase women’s participation in the workforce, which benefits everyone and helps our economy grow.

Our message to Alberta is the same as it is for all provinces and territories: Let’s talk!

Our objective is to build a system—one that makes high quality child care accessible to every family in Canada, for around $10 a day, within five years’ time. We want to build a strong system, to invest in resilient social infrastructure, and that will be our objective going into negotiations. 

We need support though. Consider reaching out to your local representatives, at all levels of government, to press the importance of early learning and child care and the importance of ensuring parents, mothers in particular, have access to these supports. Let’s also demand high quality, non-profit early learning options for our children to give them the very best start in life. Let’s also work to motivate and engage the women, parents, teachers, educators, and business leaders around us who saw first-hand the impact of the past year on their employees to carry this message with us.

Could you comment on the Federal Government’s plan to develop and produce a Canadian vaccine? -Sharon

Our government has been urgently procuring a diverse portfolio of vaccines since the spring of 2020, carefully and efficiently assessing their efficacy and safety, and providing them at no cost to Canadians. In mid-July, Canada surpassed the United States for the percentage of the population that is fully vaccinated. This is great news that means fewer and fewer people are getting sick, our economies are re-opening, and jobs are being created in sectors across the economy!

We also know we need to rebuild our national capacity in bio manufacturing and vaccine development and production. Making our own vaccines is essential to our national security. Canada has brilliant scientists and entrepreneurs. We will support them with an investment of $2.2 billion in Canada’s bio-manufacturing and life-sciences sector. And, together, we will rebuild this vital industry.

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