'Can I write the budget?': People with disabilities share ideas for using N.B.'s surplus
Vanessa Blanch | CBC News | Posted: October 18, 2022 10:00 AM | Last Updated: October 18, 2022
Disabled man and advocates call on Higgs government to put some of its $135.5M surplus into helping
With New Brunswick expecting a budget surplus of $135.5 million, people living with disabilities say the Blaine Higgs government should take "a serious look" at another, more significant payment to people living in poverty.
Haley Flaro, executive director of Ability New Brunswick, says her not-for-profit is helping clients to navigate more "poverty issues" than ever these days.
She said it's a "perfect storm," with concurrent crises in food security, affordable housing and a shortage of home support workers.
CBC News asked people who are struggling, and those trying to help, how the government could best spend some of the surplus it's projected for this year.
Cedrik Charette, Edmundston
Cedrik Charette, 40, would like to see the Higgs government provide another inflation relief cheque for people who are living in poverty.
He has bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder and general anxiety, which prevent him from working. He lives on a disability benefit of $832 per month. Charette was one of the 45,600 individuals who received the Emergency Food and Fuel Benefit of $225 this summer. About 20,000 families received $450.
While the money came in handy to pay a couple of bills, Charette said writing cheques is easier and less costly for government than actually trying "to fix at the base of the problem."
"It's a bit frustrating," he said.
Charette has volunteered at the local food bank in the past and serves as a vice-president in northwestern New Brunswick with the Common Front for Social Justice.
He wants government and others with power to understand how hopeless it feels to be poor in New Brunswick right now.
"We have some very bad words for people sometimes on 'the welfare,'" Charette said. "Often, people doesn't want to talk because they are ashamed. You know there's a lot of judgement out there."
'I really don't have any hope anymore'
Charette knows he is lucky to have a one-bedroom apartment through New Brunswick Housing. He pays 30 per cent of his income, or $250 per month, for his place. Even with subsidized housing, he said, it is impossible to afford healthy food.
He has always had a weight problem and for a while he was doing well with the help of a new medication.
"I was under 260 [pounds] for the first time in my life," he said. "But with all the prices going up … I have to buy the cheap things that are really not good for my health."
He can no longer afford things like olive oil and instead has turned to ramen noodles and cheap salty, fatty foods.
"My doctors say, 'Oh, you have to eat better.' Yeah, OK, but will you pay my groceries? You know sometimes I think that maybe the system wants us to not live very long."
Growing up, Charette said he had some "very hard early times" in his life, which he believes have contributed to his mental health struggles as an adult.
"I had a lot of potential. I would probably — without all my mental health problems — I would have liked to become a politician for sure."
Charette said the stigma of poverty, and of receiving a monthly cheque from the province, is something he is acutely aware of.
"I really don't have any hope anymore," he said. "If I reach 60, I'll be flabbergasted. But you know I will try … I just want to help my brothers and sisters who follow on the same path as I am right now for them to be better. That's it."
Haley Flaro, Ability New Brunswick
Flaro works with people who have mobility disabilities and says they are among the "most impoverished" populations in the province.
When asked how the Higgs government could best spend part of its budget surplus to help, Flaro joked, "Can I write the budget?"
She went on to say that if she could, she would issue another relief cheque to those who receive social assistance and disability benefits.
- For low-income New Brunswickers, Higgs's inflation benefit was there and gone
- New inflation relief program targets 'most vulnerable' in New Brunswick
"The stipend that did come out for people was quite helpful, but it barely even touched the N.B. Power arrears that many of our service participants have. The cost of of power is becoming out of reach for people."
With food costs skyrocketing, Flaro and her staff are seeing "a lot of unnecessary emergency visits."
"People are facing issues such as dehydration, malnutrition. We're starting to see a lot of health complications as a result of these rising costs."
Haley recently had a call from someone living with a disability, telling her it was so cold he had no choice but to turn his heat on, and how worried he was about his next bill.
"And he said, 'Haley, I don't like to ask for anything, but would you be able to buy me a couple whole chickens? I could make 10 meals out of that — I'm really worried about having enough food over the next several months.'"
Flaro said it "absolutely broke her heart" and she knows he isn't the only one struggling as costs for everything increase.
"So those are the kind of stories that we're certainly hearing right now at the doors — the fear about the heating costs for winter because people are just starting to pay off last winter."
Caroline Donelle, Moncton Headstart
Caroline Donelle sees the need for basics such as affordable housing and food every day. As executive director of Moncton Headstart, she works with some of the city's most marginalized and vulnerable families.
Headstart is an early intervention program for children between the ages of 2 and 5. It offers free programs for 36 children, all of whom have a developmental delay, and their parents.
"Our purpose is to help families do better — we work with the families and the children so that we can have better outcomes for them in the future," Donelle said. "We're trying to do what we can with very limited resources.
Costs for the charity continue to rise. It now costs $800 a month just to keep two buses on the road to transport families to the centre. Donelle said the government's funding model is "a little outdated," with Headstart expected to raise up to $500,000 each year.
"I can't just pull money out of my hat," she said. "I think the government funding should be increased."
With an annual budget of about $1.4 million, Moncton Headstart is able to offer specialized services to 36 children and families, and there is always a waiting list. All of the referrals come through government departments.
Donelle knows there is a larger need out there for this kind of support, but said renovations to the centre would cost money, and Headstart would need support.
"We're all here doing that work — doing that good work in the community, making sure that these families have a better chance — let's expand that and offer it to more people."