Saskatchewan

CCLOW Saskatchewan has been S L A V I N G to finish, release and implement our Bridging Program for Women. There have been some 16 meetings with Provincial Ministers (Education, Advanced Education, Social Services, Status of Women), the D.G. of CEIC Saskatchewan, Regina CEC Manager and Assistant, Employment Development Branch, Women's Secretariat, etc. Thank the Goddess it worked! A huge effort has been made to coordinate around the Bridging Program, as it threatens a few local services which focus on limited smaller interest groups. We are constantly in touch with local groups because we can only guard against duplication by ensuring that we know what is already available.

Copies of the proposal, Bridging Program: Women-Learning- Working, are available from the national office ($7,50, including postage).

We have been appointed to a provincial Accessibility Committee, lobbied our university against projected cut-backs, and monitored Affirmative Action in the Public Service Commission.

Collaborative activities with other organizations have included the Coalition for International Women's Day; Saskatchewan Action Committee, Status of Women Youth Conference for February 1985; and the Coalition to retain Matrimonial Property Act. We have also been monitoring the Charter of Rights Statute Audit.

Monitoba

Work continues on the bridging program for women, "Getting on Track." A key element of the project - cooperation of industry - is falling into place. The only hold-up seems to be the inability of funding agencies to determine: (1) funding available for 1985; (2) funding priorities at a time of program review. Monica Feist, who has years of experience with CEIC is steering the program through the government maze on behalf of CCLOW Manitoba.

As part of our thrust to take CCLOW beyond the perimeter, Martha Colquhoun made a presentation at Thompson in November. The meeting was better attended by reporters than by prospective CCLOW members; however, write-ups in two local papers increased northern women's awareness of CCLOW. Consequently, we were invited to participate in a northern conference, "New Options for Northern Women" (Thompson, January 25-27). CCLOW stalwart, Heather Henderson, presented a session on our behalf.

Manitoba Director, Martha Colquhoun appeared on a local CBC TV news program, "Twenty-Four Hours," to comment on affirmative action programs for women. She's also making presentations to a number of groups on the impact of micro technology on women - "Will Eve Get a Byte of the Apple?"

HERizons, a Manitoba feminist publication that recently went "national," published an article from WEDF: "Women's Studies - The Story of an Orphaned Curriculum" - an account of the women's studies programs by Martha Colquhoun.