Thank you.
There are hundreds of thousands of workers who are relying on this 10 days of paid sick leave.
I also wanted to talk about another gender equity issue. I'm sure you know that there's a history of unpaid labour in this country and that the underpinnings of where we are in a developed economy rest greatly on the backs of unpaid labour and gender discrimination. It's been a very slow journey to equity and we aren't there yet: in pay equity, in access to affordable child care and in an end to discriminatory access to paid work.
Today, I wanted to talk about one small piece of the mandate letter: to take the lead on the efforts to provide free menstrual products in federally regulated workplaces. I wanted to speak to that small part of it just to ask about this. We know that at work people need to use the toilet during the workday and toilet paper is supplied as a necessary supply for a biological function. As part of the occupational health and safety regulations, there are lines about providing toilet paper, but only one line that speaks to disposal of menstrual products and nothing in regard to providing menstrual products in the workplace. Menstrual products are no different from others for biological functions that happen at work.
For my ask—I think the Conservative member asked you earlier to work with him—I'd like to ask if you would be open to working with me, the FCM and other gender advocates to update the occupational health and safety regulations, to modernize them and to point out how important it is to have access to menstrual products for women in the workplace.