Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and Middle Class Prosperity Minister Mona Fortier announced the 18-person task force, which will help the government develop a strategy to address gender inequality. Members of the group include Frances Donald, Manulife’s global chief economist; Morna Ballantyne, executive director of the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada; and Armine Yalnizyan, the Atkinson Foundation’s fellow on the future of workers. (The Logic)

Talking point: The group will start meeting this month, even as the Liberal government ruled out a March budget—meaning that more than two years will have passed since the last release. The pandemic has had an outsized impact on women, with more women laid off than men, as well as many more choosing to leave the workforce. Since February 2020, more than 80,000 women at least 15 years old have left their jobs. Only 25,000 men have done the same. The announcement came on International Women’s Day, which this year was marked with a slew of news stories about just how bad the pandemic has been for women.