N.B. poverty strategy coming: premier

Changes to combat poverty in New Brunswick could be implemented during the next year, says Premier Shawn Graham.

About 50 people representing the non-profit sector, industry and government gathered in Saint John on Thursday to talk about ways to reduce poverty in the province.

It is the final in a series of forums held across New Brunswick during the past year to help develop a strategy to reduce poverty and drive social change.

"It's not just an initiative of government, it's an initiative of every single community partner and stakeholder that's helped develop this process to date," said Graham, who attended the forum at the Trade and Convention Centre.

"In reducing poverty, often all eyes look to government … but what's changed in the process today is it's community driven."

It's possible plans developed through the forums will be enacted during the next year, Graham said.

One out of every eight New Brunswickers lives in poverty, and the proportion is even higher among children.

Policies criticized

Last month, Social Development Minister Kelly Lamrock criticized the province's social assistance policies as being too bureaucratic and punitive.

He said social assistance rates, which lag behind most of the country, have to be increased, even though his government froze them last spring. Lamrock called for the elimination of some rules that reduce payments to people who get a roommate or exceed an arbitrary income threshold.

During his Oct. 8 speech to a group of Saint John business leaders, Lamrock also encouraged the private sector to raise wages and offer incentives to get more people in the workforce.

"We recognize the past model hasn't worked," Graham told reporters Thursday.

"We recognize the structures we had in place in the past have not achieved the objectives we wanted to as a province.

"That's why we're taking a transformational step today in engaging the people of New Brunswick in this process by having all stakeholders at the table and developing a plan that will work."

Poverty reduction can't just involve government, he stressed. It must also include incentives from the business and education sectors.

Graham launched the poverty reduction initiative last November. The public forums started in January and were held in 15 communities across the province.

Assistance rates among lowest

In April, 39,097 New Brunswick residents were living on social assistance, about 35 per cent of them children.

The National Council of Welfare found New Brunswick paid the lowest amount by far to single, employable adults in 2007, at $3,258 a year. That rate would have to double to reach the Atlantic provinces average, the 2008 report found.

The amount available to a couple with two children was also lowest in the country, at $11,595, and would have to increase by 22 per cent to reach the Atlantic provinces average, the council said. Rates paid to single adults with a disability were tied for the worst with Alberta, and would require a 14 per cent increase to get to the Atlantic average.

The one category in which New Brunswick did not rank last was in the amount available to single parents with one child. At $9,909 a year, that was listed as Canada's sixth best rate. However, it would still require a 10.6 per cent increase to reach the Atlantic provinces average, according to the council.