Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Minister, for being here today.
I want to talk a bit about the $150 million in cuts to the women's shelters, but I want to start with menstrual equity.
I recently received a number of letters from a classroom of social justice students from Charles Best school, which is on the unceded and traditional territory of the Kwikwetlem.
Minister, in these letters they were asking for mandatory menstrual education. I want to read to you part of the email from the social justice teacher, Ms. Leslie. She wrote, “We are advocating for the inclusion of mandatory menstruation education in the public school system to dispel misinformation, empower children with knowledge and help end gender stereotypes. I believe you will find the students' arguments compelling and we look forward to hearing from you in the near future.”
I will share those letters with you, Minister, but I wonder if you wouldn't mind sharing with the students, who I will definitely share this information with, what kind of education is planned. I know that we heard in this committee, in testimony around the menstrual equity study we did, that more education is needed. What can I tell the students about that?