British Columbia Report by Sheila McFadzean

Provincially, I produced a "regional newsletter" in late April, which was sent to all British Columbia members of CCLOW. (The newsletter is produced quarterly to update members on: issues / activities from the board/national office, activities which British Columbia members are involved with, and my own activities on CCLOW's behalf.)

In the lower mainland, I organized a series of three meetings (April - June) of twelve organizations concerned with women's training/employment - ostensibly to prepare for Flora MacDonald's visit to Vancouver in Mid-June. (Many of the representatives of those organizations are them-selves members of CCLOW.) Our meetings focused on: what issues concerned each of us regarding women's training and employment in British Columbia (i.e. barriers to women's learning/ employment), potential solutions/responses to those issues/barriers, and what issues we wanted to raise with the Minister. Six of us - on behalf of the larger group - met with Flora in June for about forty minutes, and presented four main issues:

1. need for increased access to information about training/employment opportunities (provided by CEIC and others)
   
   
2. need for a coordinated system of bridging programs throughout the province (and available to meet a variety of women's learning needs)
   
   
3. need for on-going consultation between CEIC and women's organizations
   
   
4. discussion of the new labour Market strategy

In "debriefing" the meeting afterwards, we concurred that the primary
benefits of our meeting with Flora were:

1. to provide a focus around which to organize ourselves more formally as a network concerned with women's training and employment.
   
   
2. to establish some credibility with CEIC so as to gain access to senior regional bureaucrats for subsequent follow-up.

As follow-up to the meeting with Flora MacDonald, we:

1. sent Flora a letter to thank her for the meeting, and raise additional questions to which we wanted responses.
   
   
2. requested a meeting with CEIC's Director- General for the British Columbia/Yukon Region. We intend to involve a representative of Victoria women's organizations at a later meeting in order to discuss our issues in greater detail.
   
   
3. decided to meet as a network monthly, beginning in September.

While this coalition of Lower Mainland groups was developing, we also held a meeting of individual members of CCLOW. (Such Lower Mainland network meetings generally involve only six to eight of our 25+ members, and each meeting often involves a different combination of members). A further lunch meeting was scheduled to which CCLOW members have been encouraged to invite friends - in hopes of expanding our Lower Mainland membership.

In Mid-May, I travelled to Victoria and met with our nine members there to discuss Victoria area activities and the prospect of formalizing a Victoria CCLOW network. The Victoria members met again in June to consider whether they want to regularize their meeting and form a local network. I have not yet heard what decision they have made.

By fall, I'm hopeful that we will have a CCLOW network operating in both Victoria and the Lower Mainland, and a regional network linking CCLOW with other British Columbia women's organizations concerned with training and employment issues.