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.