Moncton — At its Pay Equity Forum and Annual General Meeting this weekend, the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity elected new leadership and renewed the fight it has carried since day one: the right to pay equity for every worker in New Brunswick.
For 25 years, the Coalition's strength has come from the breadth of who shows up: caregivers and professors, factory plant workers and lawyers, students and nurses, from every corner of the province. It is that community that the Coalition’s new Chair, Jody Dallaire, now leads.
"Women's work deserves to be valued, recognized, and paid fairly," said Dallaire. "That has always been our strength, and it is what will carry us forward."
The Coalition’s broad-based, focused approach has delivered results. The Pay Equity Act, 2009 corrected wage inequities for public sector workers. Through sustained budget advocacy, the Coalition has also helped secure $196 million in annual wage increases for care workers. The Coalition also promoted the adoption of the federal Pay Equity Act. And this week on Friday, the Pay Transparency Act, long championed by the Coalition, receives royal assent, giving workers concrete tools to see and name wage gaps in their own workplaces.
"Pay transparency reveals the gaps, but pay equity corrects them," said Dallaire. "These two laws go hand in hand, and now it's time to deliver pay equity for every worker in this province."
The Coalition is clear: transparency is not the finish line. The unfinished work, and the promise the current government has made within its mandate, is a proactive pay equity law for the private sector. It is a fight the Coalition has carried for 25 years, and one it has never been closer to winning.
The AGM also marked the end of Raphaëlle Valay-Nadeau's mandate as Chair, after 2 years leading the Coalition.
"We have never been this close to our goal. This progress was built on the persistence of feminist leaders who refused to disband; it is now our responsibility to finish what they started. I am proud to pass the chair to new leadership, and to continue the fight alongside them," said Raphaëlle Valay-Nadeau, outgoing Chair of the Coalition.
The new Chair, Jody Dallaire, has over 20 years of experience as a volunteer and staff member in the advocacy and nonprofit sectors, and co-chaired the New Brunswick Women’s Council for six years. Dallaire was also elected for two terms as a Councillor at Large on Dieppe City Council. She now works at the New Brunswick Federation of Labour.
Members of the 2026-2027 Board of Directors:
- Chair: Jody Dallaire
- Outgoing Chair: Raphaëlle Valay-Nadeau
- Francophone Vice-Chair: Jovial Orlachi Osundu
- Anglophone Vice-Chair: Joanne Wright
- Secretary-Treasurer: Janelle LeBlanc
- Indigenous Representative: Jasmine Pirie
- Southeast Representative: Isabelle McKee-Allain
- Upper River Valley Representative: Leslie Michaud
- South Representative: Tasha Salesse
- Capital Region Representative: Katya Abassi
- Kent-Miramichi Representative: Sylvia Melanson
- North Representative: Nicole Boudreau