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The Liberal government is initiating a regulatory process to make free menstrual products available in federally regulated workplaces for the first time, according to Labour Minister Patty Hajdu.

Hajdu published a notice of intent Friday afternoon that will trigger a 60-day consultation period on the change. It would affect the entire public service, much of the transportation sector, banks, telecommunications, broadcasters, Crown corporations, the military, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and others.

“This is ultimately about equity and dignity and it is time to stop stigmatizing women for something that happens to their body every month, more or less, whether they like it or not,” the minister said in an interview with the National Post Friday. The policy is also a practical sign of the Liberals’ commitment to women, she said, despite recent “disappointing” accusations of fake feminism.

The federal government would not be the first jurisdiction in Canada to propose something like this — British Columbia public schools now require menstrual products to be available in washrooms, as of earlier this month, and a city councillor is proposing something similar for municipal offices in Halifax. “But it’s not widespread,” Hajdu said, “and I think that’s another opportunity for the federal government is to sort of blow open the door on this conversation and be a leader in this space.”

Every woman can remember a time when they were caught without a menstrual product, Hajdu said, something men necessarily haven’t experienced. “Even when the women in their lives are having it we’ve been socialized to not, in many cases, even talk to our partners about what’s happening to our bodies,” she said.

Hajdu sat her parliamentary secretary Rodger Cuzner down to let him know about the notice, she said, and he was “extremely uncomfortable,” what she called a normal reaction for most men.

“The way we have socialized our entire population around this, it’s taboo to talk about. Isn’t that crazy? We potty train our children, we talk about bowel movements, everybody’s comfortable saying they have to go for a pee, we provide toilet paper,” she said. “It would be unthinkable that you would have to bring your own toilet paper to a washroom.”

Hajdu said she’s hoping that the federal change will help to change the narrative that periods are “somehow shameful or dirty or something to hide and be secretive about.” Although she anticipates there could be some pushback — accusations that the government is “virtue signalling” or that the change will be too costly for employers — there will be consultation on how exactly the regulations will be worded. There will be costs to government as it provide the products to a huge federal workforce, but it is too early to estimate how large those will be.

It would be unthinkable that you would have to bring your own toilet paper to a washroom

Ultimately, she explained, employers are responsible for providing hygiene products at work, and things like pads and tampons are for hygiene. “It’s not about alleviating the individual responsibility to purchase products that you need in your household or in your everyday life, it’s about ensuring that we have an equality of access to hygiene products in the workplace regardless of what gender you are.”

The policy is also a way for the Liberal government to prove its feminist credentials as opposition parties question Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s commitment to women. Some of those accusations have centred on the ouster of former ministers Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott from the Liberal caucus in the fallout of the SNC-Lavalin affair.

“To imply that somehow a government isn’t feminist because cabinet ministers have either stepped down, or politics has happened, essentially, it’s been discouraging to me,” Hajdu said. “Because when I think about ‘add women change politics’ it isn’t necessarily that women are kinder or softer or gentler or not as attached to power or all of those kinds of things that happen in politics. It’s that we see different issues.” Putting pads and tampons in federal bathrooms is one of those kinds of issues.

It will take 18 to 24 months to complete the regulatory process of changing the Canada Labour Code, well beyond the federal election expected this October. A government of a different stripe could decide to halt the process if they wanted to, but Hajdu said she is optimistic there would be enough public support for the policy that it will move ahead even if her government is not re-elected.

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