Funding will help bolster the strategy\u2019s loan fund, ecosystem fund, and knowledge hub.<\/p>\n
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Canada is investing another $173 million into its Women Entrepreneurship Strategy, but at least one critic says the investment lacks adequate focus on tech.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The news: <\/strong>On Monday, the Government of Canada announced it would invest $173 million into its Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES). The investment includes $59 million for the Women Entrepreneurship Loan Fund (which delivers loans of up to $50,000), $100 million for the WES Ecosystem Fund, and $7 million for the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub, aimed at establishing best practices for female entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n From the source:<\/strong> \u201cThis is a strategy built for the barriers women faced in 2018, announced in 2026, and the single biggest force reshaping who gets capital and which businesses survive isn\u2019t anywhere in it,\u201d said April Hicke, the founder of Toast, a talent organization and collective dedicated to increasing gender diversity in tech.\u00a0<\/p>\n Following the thread:<\/strong> Not everyone is satisfied with this most recent round of investment. Hicke said the announcement lacks adequate focus on AI, which she argued is the single biggest deciding force determining who receives capital investment and who doesn\u2019t. Hicke praised the continued funding support for the WES\u2019s loan fund and ecosystem fund, but said she would have liked to have seen an AI fluency stream established, as well as more emphasis from the strategy\u2019s knowledge hub on tracking AI adoption and displacement along gender lines.\u00a0<\/p>\n RELATED: Federal government commits $4.8 million to Knowledge Hub, NACO through Women Entrepreneurship Strategy<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Final thought: <\/strong>Canada\u2019s progress on bridging the gap between male and female entrepreneurship rates has remained sluggish<\/a>, despite a 2018 mandate from WES to double the rates<\/a> of women-owned businesses in Canada by 2025. A 2025 report by<\/a> the WES\u2019s knowledge hub on the state of women entrepreneurship in Canada showed that levels of small and medium-sized businesses majority owned by women were under 16 percent in 2017, and by 2023-2024 were only nearing 18 percent. By comparison, more than 60 percent<\/a> are majority-owned by men.\u00a0<\/p>\n That gap has economic impacts, according to Isabelle Hudon<\/a>, president and CEO of BDC, who told the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in 2025 that the gender divide, if closed, could have generated an additional $150 to $180 billion in GDP for Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n BetaKit\u2019s Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF<\/a>, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.<\/p>\n