The association's collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the women's team - the reigning Olympic champions - expired last December.

The World Cup-bound men recently formed their own players' association and are in talks for a first CBA.

Bontis told reporters he had been in contact with the captain Christine Sinclair, Sophie Schmidt and other senior women's players as well as their legal counsel in late January, telling them "something very, very different was going to come to the [bargaining] table."

"I told them on a Zoom call that I guaranteed as president that I would deliver pay equity," said Bontis.

"This was a very very important and fundamental policy that I wanted to enact."

Bontis was speaking this week on Behind the Bench, a weekly coaching webcast presented by the National Soccer Coaches Association of Canada.

Bontis said historically most national teams have negotiated a percentage of World Cup prize money, usually ranging between 20 and 30 percent, for players.

The Canadian men - who have reached the FIFA World Cup finals for the first time in 36 years - wanted a higher percentage, which Bontis said "as a fan" he thought they deserved.

"They had done something for the first time in 36 years... but I knew that we had to do it under the context of pay equity.

"So anything that was above 50 per cent would have been untenable.

"Because it also meant that we would have to pay the women dollar-for-dollar that same amount and you can't pay more than 100 per cent of the money available," he added.

Bontis said an agreement with the women is "95 per cent of the way there", but that the men's and women's deals are linked, because of pay equity.