Celebrating Women’s Entrepreneurship Day: A National Movement Strengthening Pathways for Women Across Canada
Today, on Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, we celebrate the determination, innovation, and leadership of women entrepreneurs across Canada. We know that women receive less than 4% of venture capital in Canada, a statistic that reflects the barriers women continue to face when trying to build their own ventures.
To address these challenges, we are part of a network that offers coordinated, cross-country support for women from the earliest stages of business exploration to launching, expanding and strengthening their initiatives. Together with YWCA Hamilton, YWCA Calgary, YWCA Saskatoon, YWCA Halifax, we are ensuring that women — regardless of location — have access to consistent, high-quality entrepreneurial resources.
This morning’s Women’s Enterprise Organizations of Canada’s National Post-Budget Dialogue highlighted why this coordinated approach matters now more than ever. The federal budget identifies a significant opportunity: national partnerships and collaboration can ensure that new government supports are gender-responsive, accessible, and accountable. Across the dialogue, there was a clear message — equitable entrepreneurship requires equitable access.
Women entrepreneurs need fair and transparent pathways to funding, people, resources and opportunities to increase their impact. Our national collaboration is designed to reduce the isolation and complexity that many women face when starting or growing a business.
We’re also continually looking for ways to strengthen our networks to support women entrepreneurs. The recent YWCA PowerUp networking event and Pitch Competition brought together organizations such as WeBC, World Trade Centre Vancouver, Futurpreneur Canada, and other key partners, creating space for collaboration, knowledge exchange and resource sharing.
Pitch competition winner Lilian Pang’s journey represents the spirit of Women’s Entrepreneurship Day: identifying a real-world challenge, designing a scalable solution, and boldly bringing innovation into traditionally underserved sectors. Lilian is the founder of SiteTrack, an innovative construction management platform that streamlines safety compliance on job sites by making essential documentation — orientations, safety forms, permits — accessible in every worker’s language. Designed with multilingual, immigrant-heavy crews in mind, SiteTrack uses AI-powered translation and mobile workflows to remove language barriers, strengthen compliance, and help companies protect their workers more effectively.
Lilian’s participation in YWCA programming connected her to a network of advisors and peers. It also led her to the pitch competition, generously powered by Accenture, helping SiteTrack secure early-stage capital to accelerate its next phase of growth. This early-access funding is more than financial support; it creates the runway for entrepreneurs like Lilian to continue building meaningful, equitable, and impactful solutions.
By providing women with the tools, knowledge, and networks they need — including access to funding competitions, national visibility, cross-provincial networks, and collaborative events — YWCA programming is helping turn ideas into viable, scalable businesses. Looking forward, we are expanding these initiatives nationally, strengthening partnerships across provinces, and building a sustainable ecosystem where women entrepreneurs can thrive.
On this Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, we celebrate the entrepreneurs who are reshaping industries, strengthening communities, and building Canada’s future. We remain committed to supporting their journeys and advocating for systems that ensure every woman, in every region, has the opportunity to succeed.
