The board could join other municipal agencies, including in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Burnaby, New Westminster and Port Moody, in offering the products for free. All schools in B.C. were also mandated to offer the products in their washrooms by the end of last year but not all are doing s.
Susan Lazaruk Updated: February 6, 2020
The Vancouver parks board may become the next municipal agency to offer free menstrual products in its public washrooms.
Commissioner Gwen Giesbrecht is scheduled to make a motion at Monday’s meeting to direct the board to “recommend cost-free menstrual products be made available at all park board facilities.”
“It’s a biological function that women take care of in public washrooms,” she said, adding the products are also used by transgender people.
Just as soap and toilet paper are provided, so too should the basic necessity of menstrual products, she said.
Municipalities including Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Burnaby, New Westminster and Port Moody have started offering free menstrual products on a permanent or pilot project basis, said Neal Adolph of the United Way of the Lower Mainland, which is operating a similar program for social services agencies, called Period Promise.
And the province mandated through the education ministry that all schools in B.C. were to offer free menstrual products in school washrooms. The province provided $300,000 in funding, but not all schools are yet doing so.
“The vast majority of school districts” have complied, the ministry said in an emailed statement. “We anticipate all districts will be providing menstrual products in washrooms very soon.”
The United Way in its annual collection campaign amassed 500,000 individual products and distributed them to Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley social service agencies, such as youth homes, shelters for victims of domestic violence and drop-in neighbourhood houses, said Adolph.
It expects to collect another half million products during this year’s drive, from March 3 to 31.
The United Way also is conducting research with 12 of those agencies about what products are being used and how many are being distributed and what kind of benefits that is making to the people who receive them and to the community.
The United Way, which received $95,000 in provincial funding for the research, is planning to release an interim report at the end of next month and a final report at the end of the year, said Adolph.
It’s not known how much providing the free products will cost or where the money will come from, he said.
Giesbrecht said if the motion is passed by commissioners on Monday, staff will be asked to draft a policy, which would include costs to implement and maintain the service at the board’s 100 or so public washrooms, and other logistics.
“It’s not shown that people go in and take a number of the products. They use what they need and leave the rest,” she said, adding that assumption is based on anecdotal evidence and on the fact that toilet paper isn’t stolen from public washrooms.
And if menstrual products are hoarded or stolen, “it’s a small piece of the whole picture.”
Pinky de la Cruz, manager of city facilities for Coquitlam, said staff are happy with the city’s pilot project started last year. The decision to make it permanent will go back to council after staff has collected and analyzed data, including a public survey.
She estimated installing machines in the remainder of the 72 washrooms that don’t have them will cost about $35,000, and supplies are estimated to cost $25,000 a year.
(c) 202 Vancouver Sun
Commissioner Gwen Giesbrecht is scheduled to make a motion at Monday’s meeting to direct the board to “recommend cost-free menstrual products be made available at all park board facilities.”
“It’s a biological function that women take care of in public washrooms,” she said, adding the products are also used by transgender people.
Just as soap and toilet paper are provided, so too should the basic necessity of menstrual products, she said.
Municipalities including Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Burnaby, New Westminster and Port Moody have started offering free menstrual products on a permanent or pilot project basis, said Neal Adolph of the United Way of the Lower Mainland, which is operating a similar program for social services agencies, called Period Promise.
And the province mandated through the education ministry that all schools in B.C. were to offer free menstrual products in school washrooms. The province provided $300,000 in funding, but not all schools are yet doing so.
“The vast majority of school districts” have complied, the ministry said in an emailed statement. “We anticipate all districts will be providing menstrual products in washrooms very soon.”
The United Way in its annual collection campaign amassed 500,000 individual products and distributed them to Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley social service agencies, such as youth homes, shelters for victims of domestic violence and drop-in neighbourhood houses, said Adolph.
It expects to collect another half million products during this year’s drive, from March 3 to 31.
The United Way also is conducting research with 12 of those agencies about what products are being used and how many are being distributed and what kind of benefits that is making to the people who receive them and to the community.
The United Way, which received $95,000 in provincial funding for the research, is planning to release an interim report at the end of next month and a final report at the end of the year, said Adolph.
It’s not known how much providing the free products will cost or where the money will come from, he said.
Giesbrecht said if the motion is passed by commissioners on Monday, staff will be asked to draft a policy, which would include costs to implement and maintain the service at the board’s 100 or so public washrooms, and other logistics.
“It’s not shown that people go in and take a number of the products. They use what they need and leave the rest,” she said, adding that assumption is based on anecdotal evidence and on the fact that toilet paper isn’t stolen from public washrooms.
And if menstrual products are hoarded or stolen, “it’s a small piece of the whole picture.”
Pinky de la Cruz, manager of city facilities for Coquitlam, said staff are happy with the city’s pilot project started last year. The decision to make it permanent will go back to council after staff has collected and analyzed data, including a public survey.
She estimated installing machines in the remainder of the 72 washrooms that don’t have them will cost about $35,000, and supplies are estimated to cost $25,000 a year.
(c) 202 Vancouver Sun
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