Celebrating Johanne Perron and 25 years of fighting for pay equity this International Women’s Day

2026 marks the 25th anniversary of the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity. 

Few coalitions last for 25 years. Fewer coalitions achieve gains that open doors for workers. 

This International Women’s Day, Johanne Perron, who has been at the helm of the Coalition since its founding in 2001, is being celebrated by her colleagues, partners and friends for her significant contributions to ending gender discrimination in how workers are paid in the province of New Brunswick. 

Pay equity is defined as equal pay for work of equal value. It addresses historic gender discrimination in how people are paid that has resulted in women being concentrated in relatively low-paid fields, particularly caregiving work. 

The Coalition has also denounced the effect of different intersections of oppression in pay inequity, noting that racialized women earn $0.59 for every $1 that white men earn, and bisexual women earn less than half of what straight men earn. 

The Coalition’s mission is to advance pay equity and promote fair working conditions for women in New Brunswick.

“Advocating for pay equity requires a very special person,” says Jula Hughes, who was a professor of law at the University of New Brunswick when she joined the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity in 2009. 

“It requires technical expertise, outstanding community-building abilities, strategic vision, and maybe most of all, the endurance of an ultra-marathon runner. Johanne is that special person, and to boot, she is also wonderful to work with, perfectly bilingual, and able to fundraise through the ups and downs of governmental funding whims. New Brunswick is extraordinarily lucky to have her leadership,” says Hughes who is now a Professor and former Dean of Law of Bora Laskin Faculty of Law at Lakehead University. 

Hughes has served as an advisor, a board member and VP Anglophone for the Coalition over the years. Most recently, Hughes served as a member of an expert panel in relation to proposed new or amended legislation on pay equity in New Brunswick. 

Sociologist Isabelle McKee-Allain, the Coalition’s current South-East representative on the Board of Directors and the first woman to serve as dean at the Université de Moncton, also points to Perron’s leadership within the movement.

“Johanne Perron has been a great source of inspiration to me as a member of the Coalition’s Board of Directors for several years. An excellent communicator, she has a remarkable ability to recognize and value the contributions of members representing a wide range of ages, professions, and regions. Her contagious enthusiasm for the cause and her skills make her an exemplary feminist.”

Due to the organizing efforts of Perron and the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity, provincial pay equity legislation for the public sector came into effect in 2010, and the current Holt Liberal government has committed to extending pay equity in the private sector, where over 60 per cent of women are employed. 

Because the Coalition seeks systemic change, it has worked with every government since 2001. Pay equity is a human right, not a partisan issue, and leaders from across the political spectrum have helped move the file forward.

Former finance minister Cathy Rogers, the first woman to hold the role in New Brunswick, worked with Perron while in government from 2014 to 2020 to explore how pay equity could be extended to the private sector. Today, she continues to support the effort. Rogers describes Perron as “one of the most knowledgeable, humble and professional advocates I’ve worked with,” and praises her “hard and tireless work with her great team.”

Nancy Hartling was a senator until she retired in 2025. She met Perron while she was the executive director of Support to Single Parents. 

“I have known Johanne Perron for almost 25 years since she began her role at the Coalition where we worked in the same office building. I deeply admire her because she is a dynamic, energetic, and a very persuasive leader. Johanne’s passion and commitment has moved pay equity forward in New Brunswick and we are so grateful to her,” says Hartling. 

Last International Women’s Day, Hartling presented Perron with the King Charles III Coronation Medal in honour of her contributions to the pay equity cause. She is also a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal and the VIVE Community Champion award.

Elizabeth Blaney, a long-time active member and former chair of the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity, notes Perron’s unwavering dedication to pay equity that has inspired many New Brunswickers. 

“Johanne has spent her career cutting through a relentless barrage of government excuses, whether in the Legislative Assembly, in the private offices of legislators, or at pop-up demonstrations. Johanne rightly points out that change is created by being vocal, not silent and our voices can be as creative as our minds can be expansive,” says Blaney. 

“Using her voice and encouraging others to use theirs, Johanne always takes a holistic approach, working with other community activists by the principle that the revolution had to be fun, delivering the message of equality and fairness in ways the public, private sector, and Legislative Assembly could appreciate,” says Blaney. 

“From sending the New Brunswick government a bill for the unpaid labour of women, to slogans that we won’t work for peanuts and handing them out to our esteemed legislators, to sending Valentine messages that fair wages are true demonstrations of love, to the radical notion that an orange (caregiver) might be worth as much as an apple (truck driver) – both deserving to be paid $25.89 an hour – moved the marker for systemic change,” adds Blaney. 

Joan McFarland is a retired economics professor and another long-time active member of the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity. 

“As a member of the Coalition from Fredericton for the full 25 years, I have had plenty of time to see Johanne in action. She is amazing. She never gives up. She keeps fighting for pay equity in New Brunswick, first in the public sector and now in the private sector. The legislation is to be tabled by this government. We have to give Johanne a lot of the credit!”

Featured in more than 35 NB Media Co-op stories, Perron and the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity: 

• Encouraged the Holt Liberal government to move forward with pay equity legislation in the private sector at a rally they organized last International Women’s Day in Moncton
• Argued for better wages for long-term care workers in 2024
• Applauded the federal government’s decision to invest $30 billion over five years for early learning and child care in 2021
• Called on the government to pay caregivers fair wages during the onset of COVID-19 in 2020
• Pushed back against austerity that forces workers to go with less by joining other coalitions like the New Brunswick Prosperity, Not Austerity Coalition in 2015
• Demanded more than incremental wage increases for workers affected by pay inequity

Raphaëlle Valay Nadeau is the chair of the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity. She is also a founding member of the Regroupement féministe du Nouveau-Brunswick and has served as its chair. Since 2015, she has worked as a union consultant with the Public Service Alliance of Canada, where she supports local members in negotiating and enforcing their working conditions. 

“While chairs of the coalition have come and gone, contexts have changed, challenges have evolved, Johanne has remained constant, resilient, and determined. She embodies the quiet perseverance and unwavering strength that allow us today to hope—and truly believe—in the full implementation of pay equity for all women workers,” says Nadeau. 

Over the years, she has led the Coalition through lean times and growth alike. Often the only employee, she worked alongside a devoted group of volunteers while helping build the small team that advances pay equity in New Brunswick today. This team sometimes jokingly introduces itself as “Johanne’s Army” at events in her absence, a lighthearted nod to the central role she plays in the organization and in the movement for pay equity.

Perron was quoted in a NB Media Co-op story last year saying that 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.”

Time has not dimmed Perron’s optimism or her genuine love for the work. After decades of repeating the same arguments and facing setbacks, she remains as committed and determined as ever. If anything, those challenges have only strengthened her resolve. 

This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is “give to gain,” emphasizing the power of reciprocity and support. Donate to the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity. Become a member. Demand bread and roses, fair wages and economic justice but also dignity and beauty. Celebrate the women in our lives and what they have built for all of us.

“Thank you Johanne for your leadership and continued commitment to vulnerable workers, economic justice for all, and women’s equality in the workplace. The province of New Brunswick is better for a Quebec transplant who never changed course,” adds Elizabeth Blaney, another woman who never changed course. 

Rachel Richard is the Assistant Director of the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity. Tracy Glynn is a former chair of the Fredericton committee of the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity.