While the United States has a proud legacy of supplier diversity, Canada’s dates back only around 25 years. As the nation’s largest third-party certifying council of Canadian women-owned enterprises, Women Business Enterprises Canada Council (WBE Canada) connects women-owned businesses to procurement opportunities through advocacy, certification, development and promotion and helps corporations and governments to deliver on their supplier diversity commitments.
At WBE Canada, corporate members are buyers who are committed to diversifying their supply chains by engaging more Canadian women-owned businesses in their supply chains. Its members include both private and public organizations including those in technology and telecommunications, manufacturing, construction, financial, education, municipal and regional government, pharmaceutical and energy amongst others.
“We’ve developed quite a robust events schedule for 2025 to support our [communities] with an increasing number of networking opportunities,” says Jennifer Popowycz, Director of Certification & Community at WBE Canada. As such, several Matchmaker events alongside supplier diversity days are organized throughout the country. And interest is growing; with its matchmaker events showing 100 percent growth recently, Canadian women business leaders are joining the mission to make their voices heard and support each other.
“These are all opportunities for our certified WBEs to have continuous meetings with corporate members and each other to supply them with services and products,” Popowycz continues.
As well as a growing emphasis on supporting its corporate members through programs such as its highly successful Accelerator Program and Supplier Diversity Toolkit, WBE Canada works tirelessly with its certified WBEs to grow and scale their businesses to successfully compete for procurement opportunities. Through its series of Matchmaker events, bringing knowledgeable suppliers together with buyers looking to diversify their supply chains results in powerful collaboration and lucrative contracts.
This educational process runs deeply through its offering, providing information and an opportunity to evolve for all concerned. In this way, WBE Canada is driving meaningful change in the country’s business landscape, giving women places at tables they may not have known existed. “We’re opening our education so that everybody can be successful at the events. Because in the past, we thought our corporate partners know what to do,” says Charli Law Jury, WBE Canada’s Interim Chief Executive Officer and Director of Finance & Operations.
WBE Canada’s current six-week mentorship program in collaboration with the Centre for Women in Business in Nova Scotia and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, serving 10 women-owned businesses on Canada’s East Coast, offers layered mentorship whereby participants benefit from six training sessions and one-on-one meetings with their certified WBE mentor and a corporate mentor. A comprehensive syllabus ensures that future industry leaders receive solid training in how to market their businesses, how to establish and maintain a capability statement, how to trade with large firms, and a lot more. The council’s goal is to have the program presented across the country in the future.
The organization recently developed a WBE Toolbox—a comprehensive online resource library where thorough market research and solid expertise combine to provide members with deep insights into how supplier diversity works. In addition, its Pathfinder program supports qualifying businesses in achieving a position whence they can become certified with WBE Canada if they choose so.
Beyond coaching women-owned business leaders, the team is also well-versed in assisting its corporate members in establishing and developing supplier diversity programs that suit their business structures and organizational needs. Continued mentorship through WBE Canada and members familiar with the processes alongside a wide range of options mean that participants are supported every step of the way.
Corporate members, women-owned businesses, partners, and supporters attending WBE Canada events also benefit from the council’s clear goals, outlining areas of focus that give structure to these gatherings, driving even more positive outcomes in the long run. This collective archer’s aim has helped it establish a reputation of excellence in this field. “We currently have the largest database of women-owned businesses in Canada,” says Alexandra Roy, Marketing Manager.
While Law Jury is clear about the fact that certification does not mean automatically garnering new business, she underscores the importance of certification in significantly deepening educational opportunities and providing networking and other opportunities. Beyond these events, WBE Meetups also provide opportunities for women-owned enterprises to learn from one another.
Such gatherings can take various forms, like lunch-and-learns or webinars where information is gathered and shared amongst members. To keep things well-aimed and organized, every year WBE Canada presents its Supplier Advisory Committee, made up entirely of WBEs, with a fresh theme around which all meetups are focused. This year, looking at the health and wellness of their businesses and implementing best-in-class practices to safeguard against economic fluctuations while future-proofing their enterprises are all part of the mission.
Ensuring that each event delivers maximum benefit to corporate partners and certified WBEs alike takes careful planning. Naturally, designing each of these to ensure relevance and provide purpose and applicable takeaways within the greater umbrella of an entire year’s theme and schedule is a fun yet challenging task. To achieve this, WBE Canada’s motivation to be singular in its mission while offering relevant programming informs its efforts as a creative force to be reckoned with.
This acute awareness of maintaining relevance underscores everything WBE Canada touches. “We need to remember why we are here… and then build from that,” Law Jury points out. As a result, continuously evolving how it engages with its corporate members, keeping in step with the business world, and being mindful of how small and medium sized women-owned businesses are faring in a volatile economic climate provide the team with a perpetual invitation to do better, be better, and engage more meaningfully.
Making innovation the organization’s mainstay for developing annual themes means involving the entire team, keeping its ear on the ground, and staying closely in touch with and listening deeply to its communities, partners, and champions through committees, formal, and informal conversations, and walking the talk on feedback and surveys. The results are particularly rewarding.
One example of following feedback received from such engagement is the new possibility of trading from and sharing booths at the 15th annual WBE Canada National Conference & Expo on November 13-14 at the Delta Hotels Toronto Airport & Conference Centre. Hosted in collaboration with several national and international giants, the event, celebrating “15 Years of Inspiring Diversity & Inclusion in Supply Chains,” promises to be another roaring success where like-minded women gather to uplift and celebrate one another and their achievements while getting up to date with all the council’s latest news.
By providing all attendees with the best possible value for their money alongside unparalleled knowledge and learning opportunities from experts and peers, as well as invaluable networking connections to help them evolve their businesses, WBE Canada has forged a name for itself as a trusted supporter and partner in supply chain diversity. “It’s making sure that your business is financially well—making sure that the individual [who] runs the business understands the financial wellness of the business,” says Popowycz. The health and wellness theme is extended to cover personal business readiness, how to gauge when a business is ready to hire new employees, and much more.
With its own team also growing at a steady yet generous pace, WBE Canada is happy to have recently developed its new business development team that will help expand its corporate and government membership. As a passionate group full of the joys of its mission, WBE Canada employs people who share these values. To this end, team members are also growing and evolving personally and professionally, giving the organization an edge strong enough to propel its reach and presence to a future global level.
In establishing a strong tradition of collaboration, the council’s leadership has built a culture of lateral thinking and problem-solving. This has given team members the solid foundation they need to offer a warm welcome to communities of women-owned businesses around the country. Its in-house diversity also brings a lovely sense of character and depth to WBE’s culture and provides real warmth to its projects. “We bring together new perspectives, various backgrounds, and many years of unique experience. That’s what sets us apart,” Roy says.
WBE Canada is sincere in its heartfelt invitation to women-owned businesses and potential corporate members and partners to discover what the organization can offer them. “Come and join us [at the conference]. It is the place to be,” Law Jury says.
As WBE Canada continues spreading awareness and providing important programming and resources to industry leaders as they develop and grow their supplier diversity initiatives, its drive for evolution springs eternal. And so does the need for supply chain diversity.
