Women get feds’ help to attend meeting

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Published: September 5, 2002

It looks like 10 Canadians will get government assistance to attend a

rural women’s conference in Spain in October.

The Spanish conference is the third such farm women’s global gathering,

following up on the first held in Australia in 1994 and the second in

Washington, D.C., in 1998.

Lack of money and doubts about the value of the conference have been

issues for Canadian farm women’s groups considering whether to attend.

However, Agriculture Canada’s Farm Women’s Bureau has offered $20,000

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to a delegation to attend the three-day meeting next month. Gail

Erickson of the bureau said the department’s Co-op Secretariat has

another $5,000 to assist women to get to the conference.

Her consultations with the five national farm women’s groups showed

they wanted the government money divided to provide $2,500 each to 10

women to attend the Oct. 2-4 event in Madrid.

Erickson said the registration deadline is Sept. 6.

Half of the 10 delegates who will receive government help have already

been chosen. They are the leaders or representatives of the five

national farm women’s groups who are consulted regularly by the bureau:

Faye Mayberry of the Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada; Carolyn

Van Dine of the Canadian Farm Women’s Network; an unnamed delegate from

the National Farmers Union; Irene Marais of Reseau des Entreprises

Familiales; and Carmen Ducharme of the Federation des Agricultrices du

Quebec.

The Co-op Secretariat is also sending a woman from Quebec and is

searching for another. Ferne Nielsen of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool had

accepted, but then declined the offer.

Mayberry of Red Deer is the only delegate so far from Western Canada.

Shannon Storey of the NFU said the government also wants to send an

aboriginal woman, someone to represent the fisheries sector and another

rural woman.

Storey said her discussion with the Spanish organizers showed the

conference would not be good for decision making or actions, but would

be suitable as a training session on international affairs.

Erickson agreed the conference looked iffy for a while because

communications with organizers were poor and a conference website only

appeared in March. She said the Australian farm women had sent someone

to Spain in May to see if the conference was still on.

She doubts the conference will reach the 1,500-delegate goal

anticipated. She was also unsure if Agriculture Canada would send an

official to help the Canadian delegation.

About the author

Diane Rogers

Saskatoon newsroom

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