FedNor announces funding for women entrepreneurs in Northern Ontario 

Thunder Bay, Ont. – The Government of Canada aims to double the number of women-owned businesses by 2025.

In December the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario committed $8,385,309 in FedNor funding for three projects with the PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise (PARO) to support women entrepreneurs across Northern Ontario.

Of the total FedNor investment, $6,261,160 will enable PARO to extend its Women’s Enterprise Centre Northern Ontario (WECNO) initiative for two three-year periods, 2019-2022 and 2022-2025. WECNO is designed to help women entrepreneurs, including Indigenous women, start and grow businesses or expand access to export markets and supports women-led start-ups and companies throughout Northern Ontario. Since 2016, this highly successful initiative has supported over 1000 women-led businesses, while helping to create or maintain more than 1600 jobs.

The remaining $2,124,149 will enable PARO to implement the Enterprising Indigenous Women (EIW) initiative, a pan-Northern project that supports Indigenous women in their efforts to develop the knowledge and skills to start and grow successful businesses or social enterprises in Northern Ontario.