Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support this motion. I don't think I could possibly begin to embody the spirit of the motion as my friend the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre did, but I did want to take some time to speak about the difference that elected representatives can -- and we have two here today who have been working tirelessly since the term began, the honourable Members for Range Lake and Yellowknife Centre -- make a difference and actually find meaningful ways we can improve representation in politics by getting more women elected and more women interested in the system. We have seen campaign schools. We have seen more education of the male Members of this House on how our attitudes might not be the most conducive to encouraging women in decision-making in this place, and I want to thank them for that, but I also want to recognize the other women parliamentarians who are doing this work.
The Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians group is a network of members of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association's parliaments and legislatures, of which the NWT legislature is a Member. The CWP is an integral part of the CPA and works for better representation of women in legislatures and the furtherance of gender equality across the commonwealth. This is a means to build the capacity of women elected to a parliament or a legislature to be more effective in their roles and improve the awareness and ability of all parliamentarians, male or female, and encouraging them to include gender perspectives in all aspects of their role, legislation, oversight, and representation, and helping parliaments become gender-sensitive institutions.
According to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, 28 parliaments and legislatures have reached the Commonwealth Heads of Government target of 30 per cent representation of women, of which only two have over 50 per cent representation. Nine have 40 per cent representation. In Canada, that's Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and Yukon.
Over 20 Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians from 16 countries have met to discuss gender priorities in 2017, and they formed a working group which is sitting well beyond 2017 to develop strategies to solve this problem. These include looking at formal and informal quota systems and talking through strategies to engage men in gender agendas, agreeing on the importance of gender budgeting, leveraging social media as a tool to engage and educate society about the importance of gender equality, and seeking out partnerships to strengthen the work of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians network, and these kinds of activities are ways that we continue to move the dial, working with other parliaments to see how we can learn from each other to make meaningful changes in our electoral systems and in our parliamentary institutions.
As part of the International Women's Day celebration in 2017, the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians Canada region continued their commitment with the Daughters of the Vote initiative, where young women from every federal riding in Canada are invited to the Canadian federal parliament and provincial legislatures to discuss their visions and a vision for the future of Canada. I know that our women parliamentarians here participated in that exercise and brought young northern girls and women to the parliament to discuss that. These kinds of mentoring opportunities are just another way that we can help encourage women to take up roles in public office.
Mr. Speaker, the Canadian Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Women's working group, the Canada Regional Steering Committee, met further in 2017 and have continued to assess the dire need to continue to increase this. Even though some provinces are making strides, the overall representation still falls short of where it should be. They have developed very strategic plans. They have developed other ways that our parliament can get involved.
I want to encourage all Members of this House to consider how we can work within these existing frameworks of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and work with our women colleagues to find ways to support the work both inside and outside the House to be more gender-inclusive and ultimately to achieve our goal of getting more representative legislature at the end of the day.
Mr. Speaker, in another life, I was involved with recruiting candidates, and it's a lot more challenging to recruit a woman candidate than a male candidate. The first question they will ask is always, "Well, I have to think about my family." If you ask a man, he says, "Okay, when can I start?" I think that is the problem that we need to address. We need to have a more sensitive way of understanding the different perspectives on the workplace, on employment, and we also need to ensure that your legislatures and democratic institutions are both family-friendly and gender-inclusive. Things like daycare programs, shorter sittings that allow people to return home, these are all the kind of initiatives that seem very minor but help in a big way. So I look forward to hearing further debate on this motion and ultimately supporting it and seeing what work we can do to turn what is aspirational into meaningful action to solve this problem by 2030. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.