Did you know that households across Canada are paying GST on menstrual hygiene products?
Pas De Taxes Sur Mes Tampons - en français.
According to the Government of Canada all menstrual hygiene products are considered a non-essential item or luxury.
To add insult to injury, items like incontinence products, cocktail cherries, human sperm, and wedding cakes are not subject to GST. But we all know that buying tampons, pads, moon/diva cups, or panty liners is not optional. These products are an essential part of a normal, public life for people with periods.
Member of Parliament Irene Mathyssen introduced Bill C-282, An Act to amend the Excise Tax Act (feminine hygiene products), on October 16, 2013. Sign this petition and send a letter to our parliamentarians to show your support for Bill C-282 and that you disagree with this archaic taxation.
You won’t even know it’s there.
It’s rare to check your grocery bill for how much GST you’ve paid on each individual purchase. So taxes on menstrual hygiene products often go unnoticed.
Though GST has decreased from 7% to 5% across the board, people with periods are still unfairly paying into the system. In 2014, it’s estimated that approximately 17,876,392 Canadian women between the ages of 12–49 spent about $519,976,963.00 on menstrual hygiene products.
That means the government collected approximately $36,398,387.00 in government sales taxes because our uteruses did what they do naturally. Our government makes money off of our bodies.
Don’t tax periods — period.
A small tax on tampons/pads/panty liners/menstrual cups adds up when combined with the systemic challenges many women, trans people, genderqueer people, and other menstruators face in terms of their income, housing, and economic stability.
This has been a longstanding argument of government critics.
When a similar bill was brought to the floor in 2004, Member of Parliament Judy Wasylycia-Leis said, “The GST on tampons and sanitary napkins amounts to gender-based taxation. The taxing of essential and necessary products used exclusively by women is unfair and discriminatory. It unfairly disadvantages women financially, solely because of our reproductive role. The bill would benefit all Canadian women at some point in their lives and would be of particular value to lower income women.” (Hansard – 12-13-04 – Introduction of PMB to exempt feminine hygiene products from GST)
We don’t need to go with the flow!
On May 7, 2015, the Canadian Menstruators joined Irene Mathyssen and Mylene Freeman in Ottawa to announce that they would be tabling 10,082 signatures on the petition to remove this discriminatory tax. The NDP opposition brought forward a motion calling to remove the tax on May 8, 2015 and it was debated in the House of Commons. On May 11, 2015 the motion was passed — 258 to 0. This unanimous vote shows that there is support across all parties to remove the tax on menstruation products. The Conservative government says they will repeal the tax in "future budgets" but the Canadian Menstruators don't think we should wait.
Let the government know we are essential!
Tweet at @KellieLeitch, @MinJoeOliver, and our Prime Minister @PMHarper and demand they remove the tax now. Tweet pictures of the tax you pay at the till on menstruation products. Let's keep them accountable, one period at a time.