For International Women’s Day, the NDP Critic for Justice and Public Safety and the Status of Women, Gerry Rogers, brought questions about pay equity, violence prevention, and affordable child care to the House of Assembly.
Rogers (MHA, St. John’s Centre) says that one year ago, on International Women’s Day, she presented a Private Member’s Motion to start the process to enact pay equity in our province. The motion passed unanimously.
“The gender pay gap in Newfoundland and Labrador is still one of the worst in Canada. I ask the Premier, where is his pay equity legislation? The women of the province are waiting on your promise,” she said.
Rogers says that last year the Provincial Action Network on the Status of Women and a coalition of anti-violence groups urgently called for a provincial task force on gender-based violence. She says she spoke again this week to many of these groups around the province and they still urgently call for this crucial task force.
“I ask the Premier, on this International Women’s Day, will he commit to immediately striking a task force that is so clearly needed to comprehensively address the issue of violence against women and girls?” Rogers said.
Rogers is also concerned about affordable child care as a foundational piece of lifting and keeping women out of poverty, keeping women in the workforce, and improving the economy.
“The cost of child care is still prohibitive in this province,” Rogers said. “I ask the Premier, will he commit to advocating with his federal counterparts in Ottawa for a national universal, affordable, public, quality child care system where no child is left behind?”
She further asked the Minister of Justice and Public Safety about the status of the Domestic Violence Court he promised to the people of Labrador.