Project Will Increase Women's Involvement in Municipal Government

STATUS OF WOMEN--Project Will Increase Women's Involvement in Municipal Government

Nova Scotia needs more women, and more women representing the diversity of the province, participating in municipal government, say representatives of the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women, the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities (UNSM), and the YWCA of Halifax.

The three groups today, March 3, announced a joint project aimed at improving the situation.

The Women in Local Government project will identify ways to increase women's involvement as politicians and as citizens. The project is the result of a resolution passed at the 2004 annual general meeting of the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities that identified increasing women's participation in local government as an important issue for Nova Scotia.

"Women's involvement in public life in this province, including municipal government, is an important democratic issue," said Carolyn Bolivar-Getson, Status of Women minister. "Half of Nova Scotians are women, but we make up only one-fifth of municipal councillors in the province. As a result, many of women's concerns and aspirations are not being heard by decision-makers."

"We know from existing research, and from our own communities, that many women are actively involved in their communities and interested in participating in municipal decision-making," said Anna Allen, mayor of Windsor. Ms. Allen is interim chair of the Women in Local Government committee and the person who launched the project. "However, for a variety of reasons, they are not participating and so we are missing out on the valuable knowledge, experience and skills that they have to offer."

The project will build on existing research completed by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Halifax YWCA, local studies conducted by Dalhousie professor of political science Louise Carbert, and similar projects in Australia and other countries around the world. The Halifax YWCA study focused on the concerns and interests of diverse women throughout Halifax Regional Municipality.

"This is an important piece of research for UNSM and I look forward to the committee's recommendations," said Charles Crosby, president, Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities.

The steering committee will make its recommendations to the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities during the UNSM annual meeting in October.

Steering committee members are: Anna Allen, mayor of Windsor; Sherri Lewis, deputy mayor of Digby; Dawn Sloane, councillor, Halifax Regional Municipality; Claire Detheridge, councillor, Cape Breton Regional Municipality; Patricia Nickerson, councillor, District of Shelburne; Kathy Langille, councillor, County of Cumberland; Deborah Campbell, assistant municipal clerk, Cape Breton Regional Municipality; Doreen Paris, chair, Advisory Council on the Status of Women; Barbara Hart, board member, YWCA; and Elizabeth Haggart, Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations.