Janet Routledge, Parliamentary Secretary for Labour

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Janet Routledge was elected as the MLA for Burnaby North in May 2017 and re-elected October 2020. She has served as Chair of the Government Woman's Caucus and represented BC on the Canadian Branch of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians since she was first elected. She served as Caucus Deputy Whip prior to the 2020 election and since then she has been Chair of the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services. 

For more than 30 years Janet served the Public Service Alliance of Canada, helping workers solve workplace problems, win better wages and improve working conditions. She also represented workers interests on the federal Employment Insurance Board of Referees which rules on appeals to EI entitlement decisions. She was granted commenter status in the National Energy Board hearings on the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion.

Janet was a leader in the fight for women’s rights. She played a pivotal role in the effort to win pay equity settlements from the federal government and ensuring the voices of women were heard as positions of authority. She was a founding member of the Everywoman’s Health Centre, and served for several years on its board of directors.

She has been involved in many non-profits, including CoDevelopment Canada, which provides financial aid to workers’ organizations in Latin America, and Toxic Free Canada, an organization instrumental in helping workers and environmentalists work together.

Janet lives in Burnaby in a multigenerational household with her husband, Bill Brassington, her son Bill Jr, her daughter-in-law Janey Lee and two grandchildren, Ty and Asia.