e-1626 (Health care services)

Petition to the Government of Canada

• There are approximately 235,000 homeless people in Canada on any given night and 77,550 are women (33%);
• Despite elimination of the “tampon tax” in 2015, menstrual hygiene management products remain unaffordable for this population;
• Currently, there are no national policies subsidizing the cost of sanitary products;
• Shelters rely predominantly on donations for these items, which is unsustainable in the long term;
• At minimum, menstrual hygiene management costs $64 per year and can go up to $200 per year;
• The United Nations has declared reproductive health rights, including access to proper menstrual hygiene management, a universal human right;
• Canada must not fall behind as a global leader and must learn from initiatives made by other countries to make sanitary products free to girls and women from low-income families by distributing them to food banks and shelters (ie. Scotland);
• Improper menstrual hygiene management can result in reproductive health implications including toxic shock syndrome; and
• A lack of menstrual hygiene adds to the overarching lack of dignity felt by homeless women.