Thank you, Madam Chair and all members of the committee, for the opportunity to share the vision, progress and lessons learned from Invest Ottawa, your lead economic development agency here in Canada's capital, and all of the partners we're honoured to collaborate with.

Together, as an ecosystem, we're committed to empowering women founders, CEOs and business owners from every single walk of life to reach international markets and thrive globally.

If you see her, you can be her.

In Ottawa, we're privileged to collaborate with remarkable women founders who serve as powerful role models in Canada and for the world: Elizabeth Audette-Bourdeau, founder and CEO of Welbi, who is transforming senior care; Alida Burke, co-founder of Growcer, who is addressing food security and sustainability; Erin Kelly, CEO and founder of Advanced Symbolics, who is enabling AI decision-making; Sarah Sedgman, founder of LearnExperts, who is enabling a revolution in the trainer sector; and Heather Ward, who is president of Hyperion Global Energy, a carbon technology capture company.

These leaders are creating a triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental impact, as well as advancing UN sustainability goals.

At Invest Ottawa, when we say “women”, we include all individuals who identify as women, including women of colour, transgender women and those with gender-diverse identities. These women have faced systemic barriers, and together with partners like SheBoot, the Capital Angel Network and so many others, we're committed to prioritizing equity, access and inclusion. In our programs, we are working hard to ensure everyone who accesses our support, together with our partners, feels welcomed and empowered.

Since 2017, our strategy has addressed systemic challenges facing women entrepreneurs, particularly around capital and global market access.

The data speaks volumes. Women own less than 16% of Canadian businesses, yet women-founded companies drive significant economic, social and environmental value. Our ecosystem is dedicated to amplifying and enabling this impact.

In 2018, at Invest Ottawa, we created a women founders and owners subcommittee of our board, with leaders from diverse backgrounds. We also contributed to the development of a women founders and owners strategy, a road map to make Ottawa the best city globally for women to launch, grow and scale impactful global companies. Among our goals is to establish Ottawa's first woman-owned $100-million company and inspire a pipeline of many more.

Our strategy revolves around four key thrusts: to promote, educate, equip and connect. This strategy has increased women's participation in our programs significantly over the last six years. In our Invest Ottawa scale-up program alone, 77% of the technology companies generating $500,000 to $2 million minimum in annual recurring revenue now have at least one woman founder, co-founder or senior executive. That's up from single digits, and many of these companies are now exporting globally.

Investment remains a key challenge for women founders. On Planet Earth, only 2.2% of venture capital in the first half of 2024 went to women sole founders. Mixed-founder teams fare slightly better, but the disparity is clear. For women founders from marginalized groups, venture capital is less than 1%.

It's critical to break these barriers for our economy and society. Studies consistently show that women-founded companies generate higher revenue per dollar invested, underscoring the tangible value and resilience they bring to this market.

In 2020, Invest Ottawa and the Capital Angel Network, led by Jennifer Francis, Julia Elvidge and me, created SheBoot, an investment readiness boot camp that is now national and is addressing this challenge head-on. It enables more women to get funded, and it gets more women investing. When more women are investing, more women get funded. Research demonstrates that.

Since its inception, SheBoot has helped to catalyze more than $25 million in follow-on funding for 50 participating women founders, preparing them to attract capital and navigate the complexities of global expansion.

Join us to see our fifth cohort in action at our SheBoot pitch competition on November 12 here in Ottawa. Big applause goes to our Capital Angel Network partners, where women now comprise 30% of investor membership, a significant increase over years past.

We've also launched international women's month, another key initiative uniting 50 partners annually from within and beyond our region, across the country and around the world.

It's a long-term driver for sustainable change, not just creating a critical mass of successful women leaders here in Ottawa and beyond but also enabling us to serve as role models to inspire others.

These initiatives we are championing directly address so many of these challenges, but more is needed. We can truly make Ottawa the best city and Canada the best country for women to launch, scale and lead companies that fuel our economy and change our world for the better.

Collaboration is crucial. Reports estimate it will take 131 years to close the gender gap. We need everyone working together. We invite all people, organizations and sectors to join us.

Our work is just beginning. We have a long way to go. I truly believe that with intention, collaboration and commitment, and with all the partners across this country and so many leaders, Canada can lead and change the world.

Thank you.