Promoting Equality And Inclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the vulnerability of women and the fragility of the gains that they achieved made over the years. The government has a leadership role to play in correcting systemic inequalities and providing women with services that support their access to employment, justice, and elected positions. Half of the potential of humankind must not be lost.
A Green government would:
- Require pay equity in the private sector by 2025, and provide support to small businesses to help them carry out comparative job analyses.
- Fund the implementation of the framework proposed in the report, Preventing and Responding to Sexual Violence in New Brunswick: A Strategic Framework for Action, in order to fill the gaps in services for survivors and better support the community organizations working on issues related to sexual violence.
- Provide adequate funding to support salaries of workers providing community services and childcare service.
- Collaborate with the Multicultural Council of New Brunswick and its partner organizations to increase employment possibilities for immigrants and newcomers.
- It is illegal and unjust to discriminate on the basis of sexual identity and gender, yet despite the progress that has been made, lesbian, gay, transgender and two-spirit communities will experience discrimination.
A Green government would:
- Ensure the effective right of all people to self-determine their sexual identity and gender.
- Prohibit the practice of conversion therapy on minors.
- Ensure that, in cases of students who have changed their name in accordance with the Change of Name Act, only the adopted name will appear on the student’s file and be used by school system teachers and staff.
According to 2017 data, 26.7 per cent of New Brunswick’s population aged 15 and over has one or more disabilities, the second highest rate among all provinces and territories. Significant progress has been made to raise awareness about people with disabilities, but much remains to be done to obtain reliable, consistent, and inclusive services in the public and private sectors.
A Green government would:
- Implement the recommendations of the July 2020 report of the Premier’s Council on the Status of Persons with Disabilities.
- Legislate improved building codes and adopt universal design regulations for accessibility in all public facilities and buildings.
- Abolish the unjust policy which denies access to mental health services to people with autism and people with intellectual disabilities.
- Remove people with disabilities from the current social assistance categories and policies and implement a Guaranteed Liveable Income pilot project to provide them with an adequate income.
- Ensure that people with disabilities have access to affordable housing that includes all necessary equipment.
- Increase access for people with disabilities to affordable transportation services in communities.