Budget fails to address poverty, says NB Common Front for Social Justice [video]

A New Brunswick anti-poverty organization says the provincial government’s pre-election budget fails to address the cost-of-living crisis for people struggling with poverty.

The 2024-25 budget, which passed a vote Tuesday afternoon in the Legislative Assembly, includes a 3.6 per cent increase to social assistance rates. That increase is required under a policy indexing social assistance rates to inflation.

The NB Common Front for Social Justice says the increase does little or nothing to address conditions of poverty in New Brunswick. “It’s an extra maybe $20, $30 a month,” said Janelle LeBlanc, provincial coordinator of the Common Front. “That doesn’t really make a huge difference.”

Watch the interview with Janelle LeBlanc of the Common Front:  

The budget also includes a previously-announced $200 per month household supplement for people on social assistance. LeBlanc said that amount should be added permanently to New Brunswick’s social assistance rates, so that it cannot be taken away.

Even then, New Brunswick’s social assistance rates would remain below conventional measures of poverty in Canada. “We’d like to see the rates increased to the poverty line,” LeBlanc said.

New Brunswick had the lowest social assistance rates in the country in 2022, according to a report published last year by Maytree, a Toronto-based think tank. For example, single persons with disabilities received just $10,884 in 2022.

The Higgs government indexed social assistance to inflation in 2021 as part of social assistance reforms. Other reforms included a higher limit on how can be earned in wages before those funds are subject to a “clawback” by the province. Those changes followed pressure from the Common Front.

Finance Minister Ernie Steeves referenced those modest reforms in his budget speech on March 19. “We have increased social assistance rates, helped clients keep more money while transitioning to work, and reduced harmful clawbacks,” he said.

He said the latest inflation-linked increase to social assistance would result in an additional $7.3 million going to 26,000 households. That works out to roughly $280 per household, or $23 per month.

The province announced the $200 per month household supplement for people on social assistance in November as part of affordability measures.

With the supplement factored in, “many people are still going to be living with less than $1,000 per month,” LeBlanc said. “And those with a disability, it’s a bit over $1,000. That’s not a lot considering the cost of living today.”

Along with skyrocketing rent, grocery prices have increased, prompting the group NB ACORN to hold rallies against “grocery price gouging.”

NB Power also increased its rates by 13.2 per cent on April 1, and the price of gas went up by 3.3 cents per litre as Ottawa implemented a scheduled carbon tax hike. (New Brunswickers who file tax returns will also receive four carbon tax rebates this year from the feds.)

Meanwhile, the minimum wage reached $15.30 on April 1, following a 3.6 per cent increase indexed to inflation. Common Front is calling on the Higgs government to increase the minimum wage to at least $20 per hour, to reach a living wage as defined by the Saint-John based Human Development Council.

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Stations and Users (CACTUS).