Port Moody will spend more than $11,500 to install and stock dispensers for menstrual products in city facilities such as the recreation complex, civic centre, Kyle Centre and Rocky Point Park.
A staff report presented to council last Tuesday said it will cost about $7,900 annually to refill the dispensers as well as another $760 a year to maintain them. The program will be reviewed after eight months.
Coun. Amy Lubik said the cost to the city is minor compared to the financial burden menstrual products can have on some women.
“This is a huge equity problem,” she said. “It’s a small thing we can do to enhance the lives of women in the community.”
Port Moody joins the other two cities in the Tri-Cities, as well as School District 43, in responding to the United Way’s Period Promise campaign to end “period poverty” by making menstrual products freely available..
Coquitlam has budgeted $60,000 to install and fill dispensers in its facilities this year while Port Coquitlam is pondering a similar initiative. Late last year, SD43 began installing two dispensers at each middle school and three at secondary schools at a cost of between $80,000 and $120,000.
In April, 2018, B.C. Education Minister Rob Fleming called upon all public school boards to normalize and equalize access to menstrual products in schools with the help of $300,000 in provincial startup funding.
“Students should never have to miss school, extracurricular, sports or social activities because they can’t afford or don’t have access to menstrual products,” he said.
