(file photo/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Addressing gender equity

NDP promises pay equity legislation and ban on sexist dress codes

Oct 5, 2020 | 5:53 PM

The Saskatchewan NDP has promised to introduce legislation aimed at closing the gender wage gap and ban sexist dress codes including mandatory high heel policies if elected.

In a media release, the NDP said the announcement drew a “stark contrast with Scott Moe’s Sask. Party which has been increasingly driven by an old boys club.”

Meanwhile, a Sask. Party spokesperson rejected the assertion.

The NDP has 28 women candidates. The Sask. Party has 12.

“We’ve made it a priority to make sure that there are women nominated in constituencies that are very winnable,” NDP Prince Albert Northcote MLA Nicole Rancourt told paNOW, adding she was proud to be part of a caucus that has an equal number of men and women.

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Citing that Saskatchewan is one of only four provinces without pay equity legislation, Rancourt said the province was falling behind on the issue.

A 2019 Statistics Canada study found that Saskatchewan women earn around 15 per cent less than than men on average which is slightly worse than the national average of 13.3 per cent less.

As for sexist dress codes, Rancourt said British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario have already enacted legislation banning them, while the Sask. Party has made no similar commitment.

“An NDP government will make this a priority and will put forward this legislation so that women in our province know that they will be treated with the same respect as their male colleagues,” she said.

Rancourt also highlighted the introduction of $25 per day childcare as an important commitment the NDP has made to women in its platform.

“A lot of women I’ve been talking to say that they would like to go back to work if it was affordable for their family,” she said.

The NDP has also pledged to create 8,800 new childcare spaces over four years. In an announcement Monday, Scott Moe promised to add 750 new spaces over the same time period.

paNOW reached out the Sask. Party for an interview with Prince Albert Northcote candidate Alana Ross. The Sask. Party put forward its spokesperson on women, Regina University candidate Tina Beaudry-Mellor

Beaudry-Mellor said the party has a stong record of supporting women, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She pointed to emergency grants for small businesses which helped women entrepreneurs, and childcare provided for healthcare workers as two important components of the pandemic response and the economic recovery plan that benefitted women.

Beaudry-Mellor also highlighted Saskatchewan as the first province to enact Clarie’s Law, among a number of measures implemented to help women and people fleeing domestic violence.

She further pointed to high-profile cabinet positions held by women in the Sask Party, including the ministers for energy and resources, policing and corrections, and finance.

“Yes [the NDP] may have more women actually running,” she said. “But when we do have women who are successful at getting elected, they perform very very stong roles in our party and are supported by our government.”

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom