WATCH ABOVE: Goldie Hoffman speaks to Global News’ Sonia Sunger.
VANCOUVER – Two B.C. sisters are coming together to protest the tax on feminine hygiene products. The Hoffman sisters say it’s unfair to make women pay the GST on these products and are demanding the government put an end to what they call tax discrimination.
Goldie Hoffman says they are trying to bring the issue to B.C. “It is essentially an unfair, sexist and discriminatory tax that only effects women,” she said on Global News’ BC1 with Sonia Sunger.
“So on the basis of justice and fairness, it needs to end.”
The federal government does not charge sales tax on goods and services that are deemed “essential.” But Hoffman said these products should be classified as essential.
“Incontinence products, for example, are on that exemption list,” she said. “So we already get it on some level. We just don’t seem to see how that’s the same thing for women’s menstrual products.”
More than 59,000 people have already signed an online petition to get rid of the tax on feminine products. In 2013, MP Irene Mathyssen introduced Bill C-282 to amend the Excise Tax Act on feminine hygiene products and people have been spreading the message using the hashtag #NoTaxonTampons.
Hoffman said the response so far in B.C. has been mixed. They have encountered a lot of people who do not want to talk about the issue, but a lot of people did not even know those products were taxed.
“More telling, I think, people aren’t aware how expensive these are to begin with,” she added.
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