Rechie Valdez makes history with cabinet position: 'People aren't used to someone who looks like me'
Many of us who watched Prime Minister Mark Carney's swearing-in ceremony on the morning of May 13 most likely noticed that when Rechie Valdez took the oath as Minister of Women and Gender Equality and Small Business (WAGE), she was overcome with emotion.
'It was a profound moment for me,' Valdez tells Yahoo! via Zoom from her office in Ottawa. Valdez became the first Filipino-Canadian woman elected to Parliament and cabinet minister.
'My husband and children were in the room, but more than that, my parents were watching from Mississauga,' she says. 'They had uprooted their lives twice: from the Philippines to Zambia, and then later from Zambia to Canada. They made incredible sacrifices to give my brother and me a better life — so during the swearing-in, all of the memories of that sacrifice just came rushing back.'
The Prime Minister personally approached Valdez to take on the responsibility. 'When he contacted me and asked me if I would take on the role, I was profoundly taken aback and in tears. I was also jumping for joy,' she says, throwing her arms in the air to demonstrate her internal reaction at the time. 'But I calmly said, 'Thank you for the opportunity, Prime Minister,'' she adds, laughing.
The department of WAGE was previously aligned with Youth under Marci Ien, until she resigned on March 7. Then, after Carney was sworn in on March 14 (after former Justin Trudeau stepped down), the department was downgraded under the ministry of Canadian Heritage helmed by Stephen Guilbeaut. Many women's right activists, including former minister Marci Ien herself, were taken aback at the Carney government's initial decision to cut the ministry and called the move a significant setback for women.
Weeks before the April 28 election, there was a lot of lobbying and back channel movement going on behind the scenes to bring the ministry back if the Liberals won the election — something Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre likely wouldn't have done had he won.
But all of that is in the past, and Valdez is focused on the future. This time, instead of being aligned with Youth, Small Business has been added to the file — something that fits Valdez, previously the minister of Small Business — really well.
'I think this alignment of WAGE to Small Business is a profound opportunity because, while it's a very social portfolio in that it advocates for women and gender-diverse people, it also creates empowerment for these people through our economy,' she says.
Valdez, who says she faced many challenges in her own experience as a visible minority woman entering the workforce as a corporate banker, and later, as an entrepreneur. 'The journey was difficult and I know what it feels like,' she says.
With the new ministry, Valdez wants to make it her mandate to help women and gender-diverse people see their power and true potential. That's why the economic slant is especially vital in our times, she says.
'What we're seeing down south with the rollback of DEI [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion], it's very scary and worrisome to us,' Valdez emphasizes. 'Women are afraid, and 2SLGBTQ+ people are afraid because we've made so much progress in our country. You simply cannot be the strongest economy in the G7 without the inclusion of women and gender-diverse people,' she says, adding dryly: 'We only make up half the population.'
Being the former Minister of Small Business also gives her a unique perspective.
'I think our women entrepreneurship strategy, for example, is truly an investment,' she says. 'It can actually even prevent gender-based violence because it's empowering. Meeting with many women entrepreneurs across the country, and seeing the impact they have within their community will have a ripple effect.'
Valdez is excited about working across the different provincial and territorial governments, and bringing inclusivity to rural and remote communities. 'As we roll these programs out, it does go down to that individual woman and gender-diverse person; that entrepreneur on the ground. That's my number one job as the communicator of the things we're doing at the federal level.'
Valdez, was at one time, that entrepreneur on the ground herself. Long before the 45-year-old got into politics, she worked for the financial sector. 'I had never had dreams nor had ever envisioned myself as a politician,' she says.
What changed for Valdez was when her daughter, Cassidy, turned a year old. 'That's when I made her first birthday cake,' she remembers. 'I'll never forget it because I felt like I had found a creative passion.' She turned the passion into a small business. 'It was an incredible journey building my business from the ground up for the world to see,' she says. 'It was a way to find my voice.'
What Valdez learned at that time is something she brings with her in her role as minister of WAGE. 'The thing about being a sole proprietor entrepreneur is that if you work on an island, you're setting yourself up to fail.' She realized there was strength in collaboration and reached out via social media, creating events and opportunities for other entrepreneurs. 'I saw the value of bringing community together.'
She sees her new role as an extension of that. 'It allows me to advocate for the larger community and be the voice for the voiceless,' she says.
What makes Valdez a unique voice is that there hasn't been a Filipino voice in federal politics for 17 years. 'Being the only Filipino out of almost a million Filipinos in the country, and being that voice to stand up for the things that matter to me is so important to me,' she says.
As someone who has experienced both racism and sexism on a daily basis at times, Valdez feels she is in the best position to understand the plight of those afflicted by the same.
'It's not something that happens just once in a while,' she says. 'I definitely experienced both, especially online. Whether it's hate, misogyny, being a person of colour, and even just being a person on the hill every day, it can be a challenge because people aren't used to someone who looks like me,' she explains. 'I would be stopped and ID'd on a regular basis even though I'm a federal minister — that's pretty telling.'
That's why representation is so important, she says. 'It's about facing those challenges head on.'
Whether it's hate, misogyny, being a person of colour, and even just being a person on the hill every day, it can be a challenge.
When it comes to women and gender equality, Valdez believes we have come a long way, but that we also have a long way to go.
'I was recently at a conference that had to do with trades,' she says. 'I was pleasantly surprised when one of the members of the trade groups came up to me and said he was excited about WAGE. He said he's seen the impact women are making in trades and the support they're getting from the Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), like the Canada Child Benefit, and others. They've seen the impact for women who choose trades as a future career. These are the opportunities in a place I would never expect, and that's the impact of WAGE.'
Valdez's main priorities for the department will be gender-based violence and advancing economic justice for women and gender-diverse people. 'We can't just stop at crisis response — we really need that structural change,' she asserts. 'We also want to ensure that Canada leads in this space. Gender equality isn't just a social issue, it's imperative to our economy and to the sustainability of our country. Marci Ien handed me a beautiful baton, but there is still much more work to do.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
How a high heel entrepreneur is handling tariffs before the other shoe drops
Haley Pavone thought this was going to be the biggest and best year yet for her footwear company. Based in Southern California, she had big dreams for Pashion Footwear, the online business she started as a 20-year-old college junior that sells high heels that convert into flats. Instead, she found herself imploring lawmakers for help as tariffs threaten to cripple her company. 'We went from duty-free status to paying actually 190% on average overnight,' Pavone told NBC News. In the months since President Donald Trump took office, the trade war has swung wildly back and forth. Tariff rates have, at times, changed suddenly and dramatically as U.S. officials seek deals with other countries. It has ensnared business owners like Pavone in a battle they didn't choose, as they struggle to plan for a future they can't clearly see. 'It has been chaos to say the least,' she said. 'It feels like small businesses are either being intentionally attacked or being completely forgotten. And I don't know which one is worse.' Pashion Footwear was born out of Pavone's own struggles with high heels. She loved wearing them but hated the inevitable pain that came with being hours on her feet. So in 2016, she founded Pashion. 'It's the biggest love-hate relationship in women's closets,' she said. 'And we're trying to change that.' Pavone's company has grown to employ 12 and has patents in the United States, China and the European Union. for its sole-support technology. And last year, Pashion made $9 million in gross revenue, up 88% from 2023. Pavone attributes much of that success to social media. She and the company have more than 2 million followers combined across TikTok and Instagram, with posts showing an array of heels transforming into flats with a quick twist and press. For Pavone's small business, it has never been easy: between Trump's first trade war with China and then the pandemic — plus the ensuing supply chain crisis and recession. Pavone said this year she had expected her business to grow 150%, planned to hire several employees and was looking into wholesale. But then Trump eliminated the 'de minimis' exemption, which allowed items from China valued at $800 or less to come into the U.S. duty-free. The change took effect May 2. 'We went from making about 19-20% per shoe after all of our operating expenses to actually losing about $40 per shoe,' Pavone said. The Walnut Knit Booties that used to make the company $43.70 per pair, she said, turned into a $41.16 loss. After the U.S. and China agreed to a 90-day tariff pause, Pashion was left with tariffs of 36% to 75% on each product. The company has paid more than $50,000 in tariffs to U.S. Customs and Border Protection since the May 2 change. The company's shoes are manufactured in China, and Pavone said they can't be made elsewhere — though it's not for lack of trying. 'I've tried talking to manufacturers in Vietnam, Brazil, India and even one very small factory I was able to find in the U.S.,' she said. 'All of them have unanimously said that China is the only supply chain currently that can do what we need at scale.' And Pashion was hit hard by another rule change. Earlier this year, it qualified for and signed a $5 million loan from the Small Business Administration. Pavone planned to use that money to buy Pashion out of predatory debt it took on to survive the pandemic, invest in hiring and buy more inventory. But the Trump administration changed the qualifications to receive the funding, now requiring all shareholders to be U.S. citizens — and Pavone said her company raised 1.7% of its funding from international investors. The loan was pulled. 'We feel completely ignored, and we also feel completely out of control,' she said. 'It basically feels like we're just waiting for the other shoe to drop every second of the day.' The changes and uncertainty have dashed Pavone's big dreams for the year. She said she slashed inventory orders from $1 million for the fall and $1.5 million for the holidays to around $300,000 each, wanting to keep her budget open to assume tariff liability. 'This went from being a growth year to a year where we're really just trying to make ends meet and stay afloat,' she said. To handle the increased costs, the company added a tariff tax averaging $15 to $25 per product when U.S. customers check out. Demand from U.S. consumers has since dropped around 30%, Pavone said. 'There's plenty of customers where even though they understand what we're doing, they're now priced out of what they can pay, so they can't buy,' she said. She shared her frustrations on TikTok, breaking down for her followers exactly how tariffs are affecting the business. And at a hearing in May, Pavone explained to lawmakers just how painful the changes have been. 'Every day that these trade policies continue, it means the death of more American dreams,' she told lawmakers. 'This is not a short-term pain. This is the destruction of livelihoods, both for entrepreneurs and those they employ.' Pavone hopes her testimony could help lawmakers push for relief. 'No matter what happens, I at least know that I've fought as hard as anyone possibly could,' she said. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Big grocery wants Ontario to lift ban on 'private label' wine, beer
Premier Doug Ford's next move to reform alcohol retail in Ontario could be allowing supermarket chains to sell their own private-label wine and beer, such as Costco's Kirkland Signature brand. The government recently began consulting with the industry about making further changes to Ontario's rules on booze sales. As part of the consultations, big grocery is lobbying for Ontario to end its ban on supermarkets selling their own-brand alcohol products, CBC News has learned. Current provincial regulations prohibit grocery stores from selling any brands of beer or wine in which they have "a direct or indirect financial interest." Small wineries in the province fear the consequences of lifting that ban. "Allowing private label wine in grocery, big box and convenience stores would be a severe blow to Ontario's wine industry," said Michelle Wasylyshen, president and CEO of Ontario Craft Wineries, which represents more than 100 wine producers. WATCH | How the LCBO makes money for the Ontario government: Wasylyshen says while craft wineries deeply value their working relationship with the grocery stores, Ontario's private-label ban needs to stay in place so that locally-produced wines are not pushed out by the big supermarket chains. "This is a black and white issue for us, backed by data and previous experience. There is no grey zone," she said in an email to CBC News. Canada's other major wine-producing province, British Columbia – where it's a $3.75 billion-a-year industry – also bans supermarkets from selling their own brands. The Retail Council of Canada, which represents all the large supermarket and big-box chains including Costco, Loblaws, Walmart and Sobeys, says its members in Ontario are interested in selling their own brands of alcohol. "Private label increases competition, lowering prices for customers, because brewers and vineyards need to indirectly compete with the lower retail prices of private label brands," said Sebastian Prins, the Retail Council's director of government relations for Ontario, in an email to CBC News. Prins says the province's wine industry would remain protected by provincial regulations requiring supermarkets to allocate certain portions of shelf-space to Ontario-made products. He also says private-label sales could benefit grape growers in Ontario because the retailers would be looking for new sources for their wine. But with cross-border trade tensions remaining high, and the LCBO currently not stocking U.S. products, a spokesperson for Ford says private-label sales are not currently planned as part of the government's modernization of alcohol retailing. "Our priority right now is supporting Ontario growers and supporting Ontario-made products," said Ford's director of media relations, Grace Lee. The push on private-label sales comes less than a year after Ford sped up the timeline for allowing convenience stores to sell beer, wine and ready-to-drink cocktails. That move is costing taxpayers at least $612 million, including $225 million of compensation paid to the mega-breweries that own The Beer Store for the expanded retail competition. In April, Ford announced a shift in pricing rules so that convenience stores now get their products supplied at a 15 per cent discount from the LCBO's retail price, giving them a potentially higher margin on wine and beer than grocery stores, whose discount remains at 10 per cent. The Retail Council and the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers wrote a joint letter to Ford last month asking for a number of changes to the province's booze marketplace, including the ability to sell private-label alcohol. The chain and independent supermarkets also raised concerns about the mandate that all grocery stores selling beer and wine must start accepting returns of empty cans and bottles in 2026, a requirement not imposed on convenience stores.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Ottawa considering 'combination of approaches' to 20% military pay hike
OTTAWA — Defence Minister David McGuinty's office says it's considering a 'combination of approaches' to boosting pay for armed service members, including introducing retention bonuses for 'stress trades.' 'This investment represents an almost 20 per cent increase to the overall CAF compensation envelope,' McGuinty's spokesperson Laurent de Casanove said in an email statement to The Canadian Press. 'The Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces are actively working on how best to implement this investment — looking at options that include a combination of approaches such as retention bonuses for stress trades, increased starting salaries for junior members, and a broad-based salary increase.' While McGuinty's recent public commitment to grant the Canadian Armed Forces a '20 per cent pay increase" won praise within the defence community, it has also led to confusion — and some experts are saying they want to read the fine print. Military pay scales are complicated and are based on rank, profession, deployment and other conditions. There are many ways to roll out a boost in compensation. Charlotte Duval-Lantoine, a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said she thinks this will not amount to an across-the-board pay hike. "What is clear to me from this statement is that they are looking at all the options," she said. 'We're still in that big question about what it looks like because a pay raise versus specialty pay versus an adaptation of the compensation package overall — not in salary — are not the same thing.' She said the way the pay pledge was communicated initially was "risky" since the details were not readily available, and that has led to confusion among military members and expectations of a blanket pay hike. Gary Walbourne, former ombudsman for the Department of National Defence, called McGuinty's promise 'vague at best.' 'There's nothing clear in this message,' he said. 'A 20 per cent increase overall to CAF compensation envelope, what does that mean? Is it coming in benefits? … Is it going be on a cyclical basis? What's the percentage increase? Is it based on seniority, rank, merit?' The former watchdog for military personnel said it sounds like the Liberal government wants to implement a pay boost quickly, but 'the mechanisms that they apply to it is going to complicate it and once the bureaucrats get their hands on it, well, I can see a slowdown coming.' If CAF members don't see a 20 per cent pay bump after the minister's announcement, he said, it will be 'déjà vu all over again' for military personnel who have been let down in the past by lofty promises followed by implementation that "sucks big time." The federal government has multiple policy options for addressing the cost of living for CAF members, such as lowering rent for on- or near-base housing or boosting allowances, such as danger pay. Duval-Lantoine suggested Ottawa should focus on specialty trades that "do not get nearly the attraction that they need to have." The military has long struggled with shortages of professionals who are hard to recruit and retain — people in the technical trades and logistics, pilots, medical specialists and middle management. The Navy has found it hard to attract and keep maritime technicians, while people working in maintenance trades such as plumbers and electricians can be paid better in the private sector. Walbourne suggested Ottawa look at direct pay, focus on the lower ranks and address regional disparities in the cost of living. Andrew Leslie, a retired lieutenant-general and former Liberal MP who has called for higher wages in the armed forces, hailed the minister's pledge as long overdue. 'They need it because the last 10 years, there hasn't been a lot of love shown to the Canadian Armed Forces by the government of Canada,' Leslie said. 'Quite frankly, a 20 per cent pay increase is outstanding and I compliment the leaders who made that decision. I firmly believe they're going to pay a 20 per cent pay increase to everybody in the Canadian Forces." Gaëlle Rivard Piché, head of the Conference of Defence Associations and the CDA Institute, called the promised pay hike a 'great first step' and something that could be achieved 'quite easily' compared to other challenges facing the armed forces. 'It was long overdue," she said. "We know that the Canadian Armed Forces have been dealing with both a recruitment and a retention problem, and an increase in salary will certainly help to make Canadian Armed Forces positions and employment more attractive.' Prime Minister Mark Carney vowed during the recent federal election that he would rebuild and rearm the military and increase military pay. Some of the largest earmarks in his election platform go toward national defence. He recently announced a cash injection of $9 billion into national defence this fiscal year, as Canada looks to finally meet its NATO defence spending commitment. Then-defence minister Bill Blair last year described the state of military recruitment as a 'death spiral' and Canada is still short some 13,000 regular and primary reserve personnel, according to the Department of National Defence. 'There's been generally some delays in terms of receiving basic training, but also trade-related training, which makes people less inclined to finish their training and then become an actual serving member,' said Rivard Piché. Leslie also said housing and base conditions remain abysmal in some areas and need to be quickly addressed. 'Black mould exists in a variety of national defence buildings. There are some bases that don't have drinking water. There's buildings and houses for families that are 60, 70, 80 years old in dire need of repair," he said. "As well, you've got to make sure that you have money for equipment, money for training, money to create the stockpiles of stuff you're going to need should the worst happen — i.e., war.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 21, 2025. Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press
