HALIFAX—She was hoping for a pilot project, but a Halifax regional councillor was happy to have her colleagues’ support for a program making free menstrual products available permanently at all city-owned facilities.

Coun. Lorelei Nicoll brought a motion to council in May asking for a staff report “to explore the option of providing free menstrual products in HRM Facilities, as a pilot project.” The report came back to council for its meeting on Tuesday, but Nicoll was disappointed to find that it would only see tampon and pad dispensers installed in 16 municipal facilities — not all of them.

“There is no explanation as to why the 16 and why the need to install or replace the dispensers in all washrooms,” Nicoll said.

Several councillors scoffed at the idea of the dispensers, noting that they aren’t necessary at Halifax Public Libraries, which started stocking free menstrual products at its 14 libraries earlier this year.

“We’re making this more complicated than it needs to be,” said Coun. Lisa Blackburn.

“I don’t know if they just wandered down to the dollar store and got a nice basket and put it on the counter in the bathroom, but that’s how they roll at Central Library.”

The cost for the 16-facility pilot was pegged at nearly $272,000 for one year, including about $24,000 for the dispensers for tampons and pads.

While she didn’t see the need for dispensers, Blackburn, the only other woman on council, wondered aloud whether the municipality would nickel-and-dime another bathroom basic.

“Have we ever once questioned the cost of toilet paper in our municipal facilities?” Blackburn asked.

“It is a basic need, much like toilet paper,” Nicoll said.

Chief administrative officer Jacques Dubé defended the staff plan for a limited pilot project, saying it’s all council asked for in May.

“That didn’t mean all HRM facilities, in our interpretation,” Dubé said. “That’s not the direction we got initially.”

Dubé said staff haven’t figured out what it would cost to supply menstrual supplies in washrooms at all of HRM’s more than 200 facilities.

In the end, council voted unanimously to defer a vote on the staff recommendation pending another report on permanently stocking washrooms at all municipal community centres, pools and arenas with menstrual products and finding a budget for it.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“I’m quite excited to put this motion on the floor because it just took me a full year ahead if we’re not going to do the pilot project,” Nicoll said.

There was no timeline attached to the deferral, but the main motion envisioned the pilot project starting April 1, 2020.

Read more about: