The Ontario government has renewed its agreement with Shoppers Drug Mart to provide free menstrual products for students across the province for three more years.
“Students themselves told us that a lack of these products meant that they were missing classes … and missing out on those important other extracurricular activities that are such an important part of our day-to-day school life,” Education Minister Todd Smith said at a news conference Monday.
The renewal of the 2021 agreement will see the pharmacy chain provide 23 million hygiene products, such as pads and tampons, for free to school boards for at least the next three school years. That is an additional three million products compared to what the company supplied over the previous agreement with the province.
The renewed agreement also includes 1,380 dispensers that were not part of the previous deal. Financial terms on the updated deal were not disclosed at Monday’s news conference, but CBC Toronto has reached out to the province to ask about the cost.
“Menstrual products are not a luxury. They are a necessity,” said Charmaine Williams, associate minister of women’s social and economic opportunity.
“No girl should have their education or future impacted because they can’t afford them,” she said at the news conference.
Members of the Toronto Youth Cabinet, who have advocated for this initiative since 2021, say they welcome the extension of the agreement — but add that more needs to be done.
“There is still work to be done to ensure that these products are not only free of charge, but are distributed in ways that also protect privacy, are barrier free and easily accessible, are consistent in delivery and availability, and are non-stigmatizing,” Stephen Mensah, executive director of the cabinet, said in an emailed statement.
He said his team will continue to ask the government to provide menstrual products in all washrooms, provide a wider array of products and incorporate menstrual health education into the curriculum.
Angelika Bell, a student trustee with Toronto District School Board, said having free menstrual products available in school offices and in washrooms “out in the open” helps remove barriers for girls.
She said she hopes the renewed deal will also help remove taboos around menstruation.
Bell said that before period products became free in schools, she would hide a pad under her sleeve and felt uncomfortable asking to be excused from class.
“I would tiptoe around the subject,” she said at the news conference.
“I hardly saw any girls with period products or hear them talk about their period during middle school and high school. It was an unspoken taboo.”