BY NADINE ARMSTRONG

The Hants Journal

NovaNewsNow.com

West Hants Municipal Council has rejected a request from The Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities to contribute funds to the Women in Local Government Bursary program.

The program aims to encourage more women to work for municipal government through educational assistance, skills upgrading and professional development. The UNSM has committed $6,000 in seed monies for the program over the next three years and hopes to raise an additional $73,000 in municipal contributions.

Councillor Shirley Pineo told council last week she’s strongly opposed the program because it targets women specifically. “I’m not in favour of this. I hate to see anything pinpointed to one gender. It should be for everybody, not just women.”

Pineo pointed out that neither she nor the other two female councillors who sit on Municipal Council needed a scholarship program to enter politics and serve their constituents.

According to a recent report, “Untapped Resources: Women and Municipal Government in Nova Scotia,” referenced in the UNSM request, women are under-represented in municipal government. The report states that women make up more than 50 per cent of Nova Scotia population yet only 21 per cent are councillors, seven per cent Mayors and Wardens and 20 per cent Chief Administrators.

Program ‘critically important’, says Mayor

Town of Windsor Mayor Anna Allen chairs the UNSM committee for Women and Local Government and said she fully supports the initiative through equality policies. Windsor council has yet to discuss the UNSM request, but Allen says she can't imagine they would not participate.

“The Town of Windsor made the initial motion to support my role with the committee and I can't imagine they'll stop now.”

She called the bursary program “critically important” and said she’s concerned with West Hants’s take on it. “If any municipality doesn't support this program, I have to question their view of women in the workplace.”

The bursary program is designed to assist women already working for municipal government who are interested in furthering their careers. Allen said, considering the aging population, it's time for municipalities to better utilize their own staff.

“We need to look within our own units at who might be able to fill positions,” she said, “because the outside labour force just isn’t there.”

Allen will speak on the Women in Local Government program and its projects at the YWCA in Halifax March 8, International Women’s' Day.

West Hants Municipal Council has moved to send a letter to the UNSM stating that the bursary should not be gender-biased.