November 25, 1997
(Development and Rural Renewal)

The following statement was issued by Beaton Tulk, Minister of Development and Rural Renewal. It was also read in the House of Assembly:

I would like to tell the House today about a new business organization for women that was launched this month with assistance from my department.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Organization for Women Entrepreneurs is a not-for-profit organization with a mandate to provide entrepreneurship and business development services for women throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. It is called NLOWE for short.

I am sure many members will be familiar with the former Women's Enterprise Bureau, or WEB, as it was called, that was established here in 1989 as the first organization of its kind in Canada. The Women's Enterprise Bureau assisted more than 6,000 women and eventually helped create 700 full-time jobs in small businesses throughout Newfoundland and Labrador.

The new Newfoundland and Labrador Organization for Women Entrepreneurs is the successor organization to WEB. It is a more streamlined organization with an expanded mandate of assisting not just potential entrepreneurs, but also existing businesses owned by women.

The prime movers of the new organization are five regional facilitators located in home-based offices across the province. These five women will travel extensively throughout their regions to assist women entrepreneurs in the following areas.

They will facilitate the start-up of viable small and medium-sized businesses.

They will provide appropriate counsel, advice and support to women business owners and managers through a network of private business consultants.

They will facilitate the transfer of business information to their clients.

And they will assist women business owners and managers to identify the skills and knowledge they need to succeed and identify sources of training and financial support.

Further, NLOWE will work with other community economic development groups. In particular, they will work with the 20 Regional Economic Development Boards as a resource to the boards and they will encourage women to participate in community economic development generally.

In addition, the Newfoundland and Labrador Organization for Women Entrepreneurs has also hired a micro-business lending coordinator to organize a lending circle in the St. John's area. They will be benefitting from a joint venture between my department and the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Co-operatives, the Collective Enterprise Development Program which I described in my statement to the House Friday past. If this project is successful, NLOWE intends to set up lending circles in rural areas of the province.

I am confident that this program will be an effective economic development tool for rural Newfoundland and Labrador. This program will help foster entrepreneurship and new business start-ups by women throughout the province. It will help to diversify our economy. It will also result in new jobs being created in communities in all areas because firms led by women are creating jobs at four times the average rate across Canada.

I am pleased that my department through the Canada-Newfoundland Strategic Regional Diversification Co-operation Agreement has been able to contribute $244,261 to assist in the formation of the Newfoundland and Labrador Organization for Women Entrepreneurs. The overall budget is $1 million with ACOA being a financial partner as well.

To conclude, the Newfoundland and Labrador Organization for Women Entrepreneurs is an innovative and focussed approach to the needs of women entrepreneurs, particularly in rural areas. It is a welcome addition to the array of services available to businesses and it will help my department meet its prime objective: the development and renewal of rural Newfoundland and Labrador.

I am sure all members of the House will join me in wishing this new organization every success.