The Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston was the backdrop for a federal funding announcement on Tuesday.
Kingston and the Islands MP Mark Gerretsen says Ottawa is investing $2 billion in a bid to double the number of women-owned businesses by 2025, and the Kingston area will get some of that money.
Gerretsen revealed a $3.2 million investment in Queen’s University to help support women as they build their businesses in Kingston and Eastern Ontario.
“This project is estimated to support 175 existing companies, work with 125 start-up companies and provide mentorship to 300 companies,” the MP said.
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Kimberly Woodhouse is vice-principal of research at Queen’s.
“Building a start-up is hard work,” Woodhouse said. “Support and help from many organizations and groups is vital to the success of a start-up and vital to the success of women’s CEOs.”
A number of entrepreneurs were in attendance including Peng-Sang Cau, president and CEO of Transformix, an engineering company in Kingston’s west end.
“This announcement today with the federal government women’s entrepreneur fund, I think, is a tremendous opportunity,” she said, “and I encourage women who are thinking of starting a business. It’s a good time to do it — there’s a lot of mentors, there’s funding for it. Let’s do it.”
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Shyra Barberstock will be a mentor somewhere down the line. She’s the North American president of Okwaho Equal Source, a global agency on a mission to fuel social impact via diverse entrepreneurial empowerment and inclusion. She says she can’t wait to give back and to work directly with Indigenous women entrepreneurs because she knows where they’re at when they’re starting up a business.
As for Gerretsen, he says one of the easiest ways that we can grow our economy is just by investing in people — and that’s what the federal government is doing.