 Bonne Journée Internationale des Femmes. Happy International Women's Day. Thank you for giving me the chance to be here with all of you today. It's an honor to be recognized for the work that our government is doing to create more opportunities for women and girls to succeed. And it's a special privilege to be recognized alongside Lisa McLeod, who has worked so hard to make Queen's Park a better and more family-friendly workplace for women and, frankly, for men, too. I also want to take a moment to congratulate Lisa on the passage of Rowan's Law earlier this week. Thanks to Lisa's efforts to gain all party support for concussion legislation at Queen's Park, young women and men who are active in sports will be safer every time they play. Now Lisa and I obviously differ on a few things. I'm a liberal. She's a conservative. I'm a liberal. But we're in total agreement when it comes to making politics a more welcoming space for women. Creating that kind of cultural shift in politics is the right thing to do, of course, but it's also the smart thing to do, not just for women and girls, but for everyone. I'm reminded of the challenge that I went through in trying to recruit an extraordinary woman for politics who's here with us today, someone who had an amazing job and a busy life in New York and a young family of three with whom I had long, long conversations trying to convince her, please, come into politics. And of all the different arguments I could make, a contested nomination in Toronto so that she could then move to Ottawa wasn't as compelling as I thought it would be. But it was the call to service, the call that her country needed her, that the world needed her to step out of her journalist shoes and into a position where she could actually make a difference. And when we look at what she's doing on the world stage today, it's hard to imagine the uncertainty that she felt on whether or not she should do it, but we are incredibly lucky, particularly this week, to recognize Christia Freeland as our Foreign Minister who's doing amazing work on all of our behalf. And she's just the perfect example of when women and girls are brought into politics and given equal chances to succeed, we all do significantly better. Greater equality delivers stronger economic growth. That's one of the reasons equality was the core theme of this year's budget. Greater equality also helps build stronger communities, creating more opportunities for a diverse range of people. When we empower women and girls, we send the clear message that equality is for everyone. And all around the world, when women and girls have greater equality, things like extreme poverty and chronic hunger are reduced, families are better supported, and we build more pathways to lasting peace. I know I don't need to sell anyone in this room on the advantages of greater gender equality, but it is a message that we all know more and more people need to hear in the business world, in civil society, and yes, still in government. That's why we promoted gender equality and women's autonomy as one of the great themes of our G7 presidency this year. That's why, when we negotiate progressive commercial agreements, we work hard to look at what gender equality is and is part of the conversation, just like environmental protection is the best way to work. That's why, when I participate in events like the annual World Economic Forum at Davos, I am happy to launch, as the head of the company, the challenge of promoting and maintaining a greater number of women. Because it is a logical measure of the business plan. When businesses are more diverse, they are also more productive and more profitable. Just a 1% increase in gender diversity has been shown to deliver a 3.5% bump in revenues for companies that hire more women. RBC Economics estimates that if we had a completely equal representation of women and men in our workforce, we'd have increased the size of Canada's economy by 4% last year. That's huge. Even half that growth would mean more good well-paying jobs for Canadian women and men. The kinds of jobs that make it possible for recent graduates to get out from under student debt that give single or lower-income parents a chance to give their children a really great start in life and that help more Canadians pay their bills each month and save for their retirement. The bottom line is that when we give women more opportunities to work and to earn a good living from that work, we all benefit. Unfortunately, as it stands, women and men don't benefit equally from growth. That's not really news to anyone who's been paying attention. In fact, I recently came across an old issue of Shadow Lane Magazine that really drove this point home. The cover stories were fairly typical. There was a headline about how to lose 65 pounds in six months and another offering ingenious decorating ideas for small rooms. Interestingly, the top story in that issue was a special report titled Women and Wages and National Disgrace. That's a pretty solid headline, but what really stood out for me on that cover was the date. It was published in January 1982, 36 years ago. Of course, progress has been made since. I'm not saying that nothing has changed in the last 40 years, but if you want to have an idea of the path that remains to be taken, you just have to read the title of this article. 36 years. Gender wage gaps is still a national disgrace. The gender wage gap persists. Even though pay equity is a human right entrenched in law today in Canada, for every single dollar of hourly wages earned by a man working full-time, a woman working full-time earns about 88 cents. That's just not right. And that's why, in our most recent budget, our government announced a plan to move forward with proactive pay equity legislation in federally regulated sectors. This legislation will be introduced by the fall as part of budget implementation and will be part of our broader strategy to support women in the workplace, a strategy that includes investments in training, in childcare, and in support for women entrepreneurs. Once passed, this proactive pay legislation will mean that 1.2 million Canadians, whether they work in the federal public service, at a local bank, for airlines, for telecom companies, or any other federally regulated employer, will receive equal pay for work of equal value. Let's be clear. It's a great step in the right direction, a great step for the equality of sex in Canada that we are proud to take. But that means it doesn't mean that work is over. It's a first step. We still have a lot to do in the provincial and private sectors. But we, the federal government, have chosen to give the example and put our partners in the challenge of following us. Earlier, I mentioned some of the economic benefits that go hand in hand with gender equality, but there's more to those numbers than simply adding extra people to the workforce. When women hold positions of leadership in business or in politics, we get better results. Stronger financial performance, more innovation, more effective decision-making. I've witnessed this firsthand around the Cabinet table. I know that when we followed through and our promise to introduce a gender-balanced Cabinet, the usual suspects complained. They said that Cabinet appointments should be made on the basis of merit, not gender. Well, the good news is, I agree. The women we chose to serve in Cabinet were every bit as qualified to serve as were the men we selected. Indeed, I've heard it said that the men were lucky we promised 50-50, because had we had our druthers, there might be more women than men on merit. And of course, those women in our Cabinet have been improving it ever since. It's thanks to the incredible leadership of Christia Freeland that we were able to present the plan of the National Action of Canada dedicated to women, peace and security. We now have a feminist policy of international aid that will help improve the situation of women and girls around the world thanks to the efforts of Marie-Claude Bibo. And thanks to the hard work of Marie-Anne Montseuf our strategy to prevent and counter violence based on sex will contribute to making Canada a safer place for Canadian generations. But, as in the case of wage equity, there is still a lot of work to be done. In Canada, women and girls make up just over half the population but barely more than a quarter of federally elected decision-makers. That's not acceptable. That has to change. I know it's easy to be cynical about the pace of change, particularly given that chatteling cover from 1982. But there have been a couple of things in the last few years that gave me significant hope that change is not too far off. First, there are recent by-election results. Parliament of Canada has had 12 by-elections in the past year and a half and six of those have been won by women. And the other thing that makes me hopeful happened, as you well know, one year ago today. It was the Daughters of the Vote event that Equal Voice organized in Ottawa to help mark International Women's Day. To walk into the House of Commons and see for the first time in history every single seat filled by a young woman, I'll tell you, I, like most of you, will never forget it. On the one hand, it was a reality check. A stark reminder of how far we still have to go to have a parliament that really does look like Canada. But on the other, well, I think back on the perspectives and experiences that were shared at Daughters of the Vote, I think about how fortunate we would be to have some of those, sorry, we will be, to have some of those young women in the House representing their communities. I left this event more convinced than ever that change in politics goes through women. And we are not obliged to wait. There are many things we can do today to make the political world a more welcoming place for women who want to serve their communities. To begin, we must modernize our institutions in a way that is better adapted to family life. To follow the excellent example of Lisa McLeod, for example. So in the coming months, we'll work with Parliament to ensure that the House of Commons can better accommodate the needs of members who have children. This includes better access to childcare and designated spaces for members who need care for their children when they're at work. We're proposing changes to the standing orders so that infants can be cared for by their parents while they're on the floor of the House of Commons. Babies should never be considered strangers in the House. We intend to move forward with legislation that will make it possible for Parliamentarians to take maternity and paternity leave. As those of us who our parents know in those earliest days, weeks and months are a precious time in the life of the family. I know from my own personal experience when my son Xavier was born 10 years ago, I was a nominated candidate working hard in my riding but I didn't have to come back and forth with the House and I got to take quite a bit of time with my son. When Ella Grace was born 16 months later, I had been elected and was proud to be in the House but my paternity leave was a long weekend. There's a lot of work to do to recognize, not just in Parliament but across workplaces, that men can and must share a greater role in parenting. See if we want ambitious and talented young women filling more seats in the House of Commons like they did a year ago today, we need to make Parliament a place where work life and family life really can coexist. So again, I want to thank Equal Voice for today's award. It's an honor to be recognized for the work we are doing as a government. It's an honor, but it's also a challenge. We have to ask ourselves every day, how can we make life better for women and girls in Canada? How can we encourage more men and boys to support this important work by being better partners and allies? What can we do to encourage more women to realize their dream of entrepreneurship, the way they can create good jobs for themselves and others? What can we do to help young researchers who already work on new discoveries? How can we help families share more equally in the work of raising their children? And what changes can we make so that all children, including our daughters, see a future for themselves around the boardroom table and the cabinet table? These are the challenges we face as leaders, as feminists, as advocates, as Canadians. With the help of strong leaders like the ones here in this room, I know we can meet those challenges and we will all be better for it. Merci beaucoup tout le monde. Thank you so much.