Key takeaways:
- ‘They’re the only unit with a proper plan published.’
- Copies of the P.E.I. Advisory Council on the Status of Women’s Equality Report Card for 2022.
The P.E.I. Advisory Council on the Status of Women hailed the region’s Department of Agriculture and Land for being the first to create and execute a gender diversity and inclusion policy.
The group looks at as a portion of its Equality Report Card: enabling government units to make strategic plans for making the region more inclusive to any individuals or groups who may be systematically excluded.
Jane Ledwell, executive director of the Advisory Council on the Status of Women, said other regional branches had begun that process — but Agriculture and Land have made remarkable headway in recent years.
“They’re the only division with a proper plan published,” said Ledwell.
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“But most significantly of all, they’ve set out plans, specific strategic objectives with targets and timelines for what they want to get, to make their department’s work answer to the requirements of people in the community.”
Since 2018 the unit has concentrated on encouraging options for women in the industry. It has financed projects that seek to improve diversity. And developed policies to encourage gender, diversity, and inclusion in agriculture, aquaculture, and fisheries.
Ledwell offers the instance of translating COVID-19 public health safety protocols into numerous languages for migrant workers on Island farms — and said measures like that go a long way toward promoting inclusion.
“Those things count,” stated Ledwell. “To access data in your language of origin or the language that you say most comfortably makes a difference to succeed in the community and do your work for Agriculture and Land that help all of Prince Edward Island.”
Source – cbc.ca
