NDP Critic for the Status of Women Gerry Rogers has been asking this government to apply gender analysis to their budget preparation for two years in a row. Now she’s asking if the women of this province will be an afterthought once again.
“I’ve asked for a copy of the analysis tool they supposedly used and their analysis report, I even submitted an ATIPP request. Nothing was delivered proving it was done – and the budgets themselves were proof that it wasn’t done,” Rogers said.
This week, the federal government released a budget saying it was prepared with a gender analysis. When the province’s Minister of Finance was asked if he would do the same, he said he didn’t know what type of work he could get done in time for this year’s budget, but that a gender analysis is something they would be absolutely interested in looking at.
In the House of Assembly, Rogers again asked the minister if he was applying a gender analysis to the upcoming budget. “This coming provincial budget was their third opportunity to get it right,” Rogers said.
Today in Question Period, Rogers said deficit reduction budgets disproportionately hurt working women, and that single mothers, seniors, and Indigenous women suffer the most when governments cut programs. Rogers said the Minister’s response to whether or not government would use gender analysis for the 2018 budget sounds like a no.
“I ask the Minister again, is he doing an actual gender-based analysis for the budget and, if so, when did it start?” Rogers said.
Rogers also pressed the Minister Responsible for the Status of Women for concrete answers: “Is a specific gender-based analysis tool being applied in the actual preparation of the budget?” she asked. “How it is being done? When did it start? Who is doing it?”