A Gaspésie SME has developed a medical mask that can be washed a hundred times and retain its fine particle filtration capacity—an innovation that will open the doors to the global market.

Our team is very pleased to be supporting this innovative company during its development phases. We spoke with Frëtt Design and Frëtt Solutions founder, Michelle Secours, to shed some light on her success and her organization’s challenges.

Frëtt Solutions is the eco-efficient technical textile R&D division of Frëtt Design, a company that designs and manufactures ethical and eco-responsible clothing in Caplan, Gaspésie. The company recently received Health Canada medical device license approval for its reusable masks. This is a big step forward as the healthcare system is one of the largest users of disposable masks.

“Single-use masks are a real danger to the environment. They release millions of plastic microfibres that are not biodegradable. With the quantity of masks that are used and thrown away every day, we had to find a solution to avoid an ecological disaster,” says Michelle Secours.

From ethical clothing to an eco-responsible medical mask

Sensitive to the impact of textile production on the environment, Michelle Secours continues with Frëtt Solutions the eco-responsible mission of Frëtt Design, the company she founded in 1997. For 25 years, the SME has been using mostly natural and ecological materials such as hemp, merino wool or organic cottons in the manufacturing of its clothing for women, men and children.

The company responded to the health emergency at the beginning of the pandemic by starting to manufacture washable barrier masks for the general public. At the same time, a small core of employees dedicated themselves to the development of medical grade masks that could be reused by washing and disinfecting to meet a growing demand from the healthcare community.

“Each of our masks replaces 200 disposable masks. We have succeeded in achieving results that no one else has been able to match, both in performance and sustainability,” says the entrepreneur proudly.

On International Women’s Rights Day, let’s celebrate where we are and look at the ground we still have to cover to achieve equality.

While we have come a long way in terms of women’s contribution to our success, we haven’t yet reached our goal: gender equality in everything, everywhere, all the time.

That’s why Grant Thornton International’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) team addressed this critical issue in Women in Business 2023: The push for parity, a highly insightful report released by our global network.

This report argues that if companies do not implement a culture of empowerment through flexible work arrangements, or take additional steps to support women’s access to leadership positions, by 2025 women will hold only 34% of those positions—a far cry from the UN’s goal of parity by 2030.

Fortunately, at Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton, we have a solid record of gender parity in management positions, 48% of which are held by women.

Daring to open the door and cross the threshold

Drawing on the experiences of inspiring women who have succeeded in becoming managers, such as Mireille Dallaire, Senior Manager – Business Systems, Information Technology at our firm, this report includes a list of the actions needed to change things for the benefit of future generations.

“We are fortunate to have been born in countries where many doors are open to us. We therefore have a duty to encourage our girls and boys to think critically about what is happening, here and in the world, in terms of rights disparities. We need to teach our girls to be bold, to say what they want and what they want to accomplish, like becoming a CEO, for example,” says Mireille.

DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality

This year, the UN has chosen to mark International Women’s Day with the theme “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”. We wanted to interview Mireille to understand what motivated her to enter an industry where women managers—and women overall—are underrepresented.

“When the opportunity arose to implement an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system, I didn’t really think about whether or not it was something I was capable of implementing. I thought, ‘I like systems so I’m going for it!’ My background in accounting, assurance and compliance could have hindered me as this new path presented a very big change in direction. But the most important thing is to be on the right path, and for me, that’s systems,” says Mireille.

Our 75th anniversary is a great opportunity to reflect on how far we have come within our firm, and in society, to close the rights-and-privileges gender gap. It also allows us to continue to make strides in CSR, including acting on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal #5: Gender equality.

IAS 36 Impairment of Assets is not a new standard and, while many of its requirements are familiar, an impairment review of assets (either tangible or intangible) is frequently challenging to apply in practice. This is because IAS 36’s guidance is detailed, prescriptive and complex in some areas.

The Insights into IAS 36 series has been written to assist preparers of financial statements and those charged with the governance of reporting entities to understand the requirements set out in IAS 36 and revisit some areas where confusion has been seen in practice.

The final two publications in the Insights into IAS 36 series cover disclosure requirements when an entity recognizes an impairment loss and/or reversal during the reporting period and considerations for some regularly encountered issues when applying the standard:

• Presentation and disclosure;
• Other impairment issues.

The publications mentioned above follow this IFRS Adviser Alert.