Women leaders and entrepreneurs across critical sectors are building Canada’s future – strengthening infrastructure, advancing innovation and expanding business opportunities nationally and internationally.SUPPLIED
As Ottawa advances a “Canada Strong” economic agenda, women entrepreneurs are shaping the country’s foundations. From construction sites and farms to airline hangars, AI companies, engineering firms and women’s health startups, women-led businesses are driving job creation, innovation and exports.
According to the forthcoming State of Women’s Entrepreneurship in Canada: 2026, women are majority owners of 20 per cent of all Canadian businesses. Women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises generate more than $90-billion annually and employ close to one million Canadians.
Wendy Cukier, founder of the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (WEKH), says: “The message is clear: supporting women entrepreneurs is not just about social justice or equity or fairness. It makes good economic sense.”
Canada’s Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES) has provided significant investments in financing women entrepreneurs and strengthening the ecosystem, says Dr. Cukier. “WES is unique globally because of its ‘whole of government’ approach. In addition to investing directly in women entrepreneurs and the organizations and programs that support them, it brings a gender and inclusion lens across policies and programs, whether in research and development, infrastructure, agriculture, environment, trade, health or more to create an innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem that works for all entrepreneurs.”
Building Canada stronger
There is no question, however, that while they are gaining traction, women in non-traditional sectors still encounter significant obstacles.
Jennifer Cross is the co-founder of City BuildHERS, an organization that connects women working in construction, design, engineering, architecture, urban planning, development and policy.
“Our cities are imagined, funded and built by men. How can they reflect our needs, desires and safety if we’re not at the table at decision-making time?
“We need to come together,” says Ms. Cross, who is also director of regional development at Chandos Construction in Ontario, a firm specializing in building community infrastructure, including fire stations, social housing and community centres, “projects that matter to me.”
Sherry Larjani, who trained in civil engineering and architecture, is but one example of women in infrastructure driving innovation. She is the president and founder of Spotlight Development Inc., co-creating Reina, Toronto’s first all-woman development team.
The dire need for affordable housing spurred Ms. Larjani to design and build a high-density residential, commercial mixed-use project: 1,800 units, 10 per cent of which are allocated for Indigenous and Black communities, on a site offering 24-hour child care, medical services and other amenities.
“There are underserved people who are basically not noticed at all. So I decided to put my money where my mouth is,” says Ms. Larjani, who financed the project with her own capital and by “knocking on every door,” including all levels of government.
What’s needed are more voices calling for fundamental change, she says. “If collectively we ask for that, we might be able to make a crack in it.”
For Marie St-Gelais, an Innu civil engineer, infrastructure is not only about access – it’s about sovereignty. She launched an engineering and project management firm, Ashini Consultants Engineering, after observing that “our communities lack control over the construction of their own infrastructure.
“We need Indigenous voices on these projects because we need different ideas around the table, and also to bring in traditional knowledge of our ancestors” to achieve better outcomes, “not just for Indigenous communities, but for society in general.”
Ms. St-Gelais is frustrated by federal rhetoric about opportunities for women and Indigenous businesses “because it’s not happening” at the first-tier contract level. The government must “take a lead” and adapt procurement criteria so those historically excluded can participate, she says.
Moving goods and services
But physical infrastructure is not the only area of importance – transportation is vital to a strong economy. In aviation – where women make up only 8 per cent of pilots and 2.5 per cent of aircraft maintenance engineers – Teara Fraser is a trailblazer.
At age 30, she experienced “a truly life-changing moment” flying in a small plane. She decided she wanted to be a pilot. But, a single mom with two kids and no savings, attaining that dream seemed impossible. Until it wasn’t.
One year later, she earned a commercial pilot’s licence. “I made that possible and then I started making other things possible,” including being the first Indigenous woman in Canada to start an airline, launched in 2021.
Iskwew Air, based in B.C. and offering scheduled flights and charter services, “is literally uplifting women,” says Ms. Fraser, who is Métis – and named the airline with a word for woman in Cree, the language spoken by matriarchs in her family line.
“Air transportation is critical infrastructure.” It’s how goods and supplies are delivered and people access medical treatments, she emphasizes. “It’s a lifeline for remote Indigenous communities.”
And yet, aviation companies must operate under a system in which the federal government collects revenue through airport rents and taxes, a structure that drives up fares and creates investment barriers for regional operators.
Ms. Fraser calls on the government to invest more strategically in aviation, particularly for the North. “Our country cannot thrive without a thriving air infrastructure system.”
Sustaining the nation
Farmers and hunters were arguably the first entrepreneurs, and food security has never been more critical.
“The agriculture sector is definitely struggling with having enough people working,” says Phyllis MacCallum, senior program manager of research and knowledge mobilization at the Canadian Agriculture Human Resource Council, noting that labour shortages and limited succession planning threaten food production.
Raised on a cow-calf operation, Ms. MacCallum still farms with her family and co-owns Shamrock Polled Herefords and Valliquette Transport, which hauls livestock across Canada.
Women now account for 79,795 farm operators, representing 30.4 per cent nationwide. Barriers remain, “but it’s getting better,” she says. It’s about “not being afraid to be at the table with the old boys. When you’re invited, take that seat, because there’s opportunity for everyone.”
Leading Canada’s digital future
Erin Kelly, co-founder and CEO, askpolly.ai, developed the first AI to probabilistically measure bespoke social media audiences and predict future behaviour from public posts.
Researchers long recognized social media as a rich source of behavioural data, but lacked a way to remove bias. It took Ms. Kelly’s team five years to crack the algorithm that would allow for statistically valid research from social media populations. Her company is now ranked #1 globally in this field.
Her tools were credited with helping the Public Health Agency of Canada identify the source of a fatal salmonella outbreak.
“You’re not going to ask a survey research company to isolate the source of contamination,” says Ms. Kelly. “Their methodology doesn’t allow it; askpolly is the only research AI that can.”
Unfortunately, securing financing and customers in Canada isn’t easy, notes Ms. Kelly.
“When you approach a Canadian customer, they say, ‘Give me an example of a project like this you’ve done before.’ When I say this would be the first, they tell me, ‘Come back when you’ve tried it with someone else.’
“When I approach an American customer, they ask the same question. When I say it would be a first, they say, ‘Great. We’ll be the first.’
“The barriers of access to capital and customers in Canada are also exacerbated by regulatory uncertainty,” she adds.
Advertising feature produced by Randall Anthony Communications with the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (WEKH) and the Diversity Institute. . The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.