No timeline yet on pay equity bill promised during election campaign [video]

On International Women’s Day, a crowd marched through the streets of downtown Moncton. Their message: the time is now for feminist economic policies. But for the moment, it remains unclear when the government will put forward key economic legislation promised during last year’s election. 

Activists called for the provincial Liberal government to follow through on two election promises, namely higher social assistance rates and private-sector pay equity legislation. 

Generally defined as equal pay for work of equal value, pay equity is a longstanding demand from social justice activists, who note that women tend to be concentrated in relatively low-paid fields, particularly caregiving work. Provincial pay equity legislation for the public service came into effect in 2010, but the Act doesn’t apply to the private sector.  

Organizers estimated that nearly 200 people turned out for the march despite cold, windy weather on Saturday. The event ended with speeches indoors at the Aberdeen Cultural Centre. The speakers included two provincial cabinet ministers, Claire Johnson and Lyne Chantal Boudreau.

Johnson, the Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, emphasized the importance of pay equity in her remarks. “If we want to keep our population healthy, we need pay equity,” she said. 

The NB Media Co-op asked Boudreau, Minister responsible for Women’s Equality, when private-sector pay equity legislation would be tabled. She wasn’t sure, but said the government is working with partners including the NB Coalition for Pay Equity to prepare the legislation “as soon as possible.”  

Johanne Perron, executive director of the NB Coalition for Pay Equity, said it’s difficult to know what the government has planned, “but our hope is that it will happen within two years,” she said. “We feel it’s important to move forward quickly and to have time to start implementing the Act.”

She said legislation alone won’t address the systemic gendered pay gap. “An Act would require employers to look at the responsibilities, working conditions, efforts, and qualifications that are required for jobs mostly done by women and jobs mostly done by men,” Perron said. “Well, that requires some time.”

Will the current atmosphere of economic uncertainty — driven by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs against Canadian goods — generate resistance from the private sector against pay equity? “I’ve been asking that to myself for a little while, quite frankly,” said Perron, who argued that pay equity would improve economic productivity. 

“We know that pay equity often brings more productivity because people feel that they’ve been valued and that their work is recognized.”

Former Senator Nancy Hartling was also in attendance, and presented Perron with a medal in honour of her contributions to the pay equity cause. Speaking to the NB Media Co-op, Hartling noted that lack of access to good paying jobs makes women more vulnerable to domestic abuse.  

“Unfortunately, in Nova Scotia, since September, we’ve had seven more deaths of women from violence from their spouses,” she said. “That’s not acceptable.” She expressed support for a guaranteed basic livable income or similar program as Canadians face a tougher economy. 

Migrants scapegoated for housing crisis, unemployment

The NB Media Co-op also spoke to Université de Moncton social work student Jovial Orlachi Osundu, who stressed the importance of diversity in the movement for economic justice. “I think it’s important that students, young people, and Black people be represented in this kind of cause,” Orlachi said, in English translation. 

She attended the event with a group of friends that included several international students like herself. “We came to champion the cause, especially as young people – someone has to take up the cause,” said Orlachi, who is also the president of an association representing international students and treasurer for the Regroupement féministe du Nouveau-Brunswick.

“Many international students work in private sector jobs where they are underpaid. So it’s important that these movements be built because they are often causes that affect us as individuals,” Orlachi said. “Economic justice, as women, as young people — we want to have access to better environments, good wages, good jobs, good environments for young people to thrive in.”

Recent changes to the immigration system have created uncertainty and fear, Orlachi added. For example, international students who are about to graduate don’t know whether they will be allowed to stay. “It’s a big debate and it’s creating fear within the international community.” 

Meanwhile, immigrants have faced a wider societal backlash amid a wave of racism. “I think that in recent years, immigrants and Black people, for that matter, have been scapegoated for many things. We’ve been blamed for the housing crisis, the lack of access to various jobs,” she said. “We’ve been blamed for things that we don’t have any control over.”

She called for all people to be treated with dignity and respect regardless of race, immigration status, or country of origin. “Everyone deserves to be treated well, because we pay taxes just like other people in Canada. Whether we’re students, immigrants, or temporary residents, we pay taxes like Canadians. So we must be treated equally like everyone else.” 

David Gordon Koch is a staff reporter with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS).