Thank you.
Good morning. My name is Jill Johnston, and today I'm in my home in London, Ontario, on the traditional territories of the Anishinabe, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak and Attawandaron nations.
I'd like to begin by telling all of you that I respect the work you are doing and that I appreciate this opportunity to participate in it.
I am the advocacy coordinator for Days for Girls Canada. I am appearing today to represent Days for Girls Canada and to speak about our work with Changing the Flow in a collaborative initiative called “Share the Platform”.
We all recognize that currently there are many barriers to menstrual equity in Canada. My list of barriers is in the brief I prepared, but I’d like to mention specifically the limited education available to Canadians about menstrual health.
As a retired teacher, I value education very highly, and I can attest to the importance of providing access to information that is clear, accurate and inclusive. When it comes to menstrual health education specifically, my teaching experience has taken place since my retirement. As a Days for Girls team leader, I am proud of every DfG menstrual kit my team has sewn, but I'm even more proud of the teaching I have done as a Days for Girls menstrual health ambassador in Kenya, Haiti, Guyana and here in Canada.
After every distribution, I know without a doubt that the information I have shared is life-changing for an entire community. In our Share the Platform work, Changing the Flow and Days for Girls Canada aim to share information that is life-changing for all Canadian menstruators. In our Share the Platform work, we intentionally use language that includes girls, women, trans men, trans boys, non-binary, gender-fluid and gender non-conforming individuals and all others who experience menstruation.
Our Share the Platform vision is optimal menstrual health for everyone who menstruates. Menstrual health is defined as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being throughout the lifetime of individuals who menstruate. That full definition, found in the documentation I've provided, is a comprehensive one and is the basis for all our Share the Platform work as we advance menstrual equity.
Our Share the Platform collaboration with Changing the Flow has evolved over the past two years. We began as two menstrual health organizations collaborating to present bimonthly virtual events to advance menstrual equity. Our exciting new initiative involves taking the lead on the period-positive workplace campaign for Canada. This is a global campaign designed to encourage private sector businesses to support menstrual health in their workplaces.
Share the Platform congratulates all three federal ministries that are taking positive steps towards menstrual equity in Canada. We appreciate the action taken by the indigenous affairs ministry to ensure first nations communities will receive the products they need. It has been exciting and very encouraging to be given the opportunity to participate in the consultation process with WAGE and the menstrual equity fund pilot and to realize that we are being heard.
The recent announcement by the labour ministry that new regulations regarding menstrual health in federally regulated workplaces will be in place by December 2023 is a huge step forward for Canada. Share the Platform sees the Canadian labour ministry initiative as a model to be followed in our own Canadian period-positive workplace campaign. We will encourage private sector businesses to supply free menstrual products in their workplaces and to become PPW-certified for doing so—that's period-positive workplace certified. We are prepared to support organizations impacted by the new regulations for federally regulated workplaces, as well as the private sector businesses that we are targeting. We will offer education, implementation assistance, access to resources for purchase and information about best practices.
I will conclude by emphasizing that, as Share the Platform, both Changing the Flow and Days for Girls Canada acknowledge that our federal government is leading by example. It is our hope that the developing plan will be designed to transition into a sustainable course of action: a plan that ensures access to free menstrual products for all Canadians in need; a plan that educates all Canadians in order to break down the barriers to menstrual equity; a plan that provides financial incentives to organizations that need to invest in education and structural improvements in order to ensure full access to free menstrual products at all times; and, most of all, a plan that supports menstrual health organizations across Canada as we work together for all who menstruate.
Thank you for this opportunity. I look forward to your questions.