compare NB provincial party policies on poverty

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poverty in New Brunswick

• According to news reports in February 2010, New Brunswick is home to 7 out of the 10 poorest communities in Canada: Adamsville, N.B, Kingsclear, Eel Ground, Tobique, Elsipogtog, Red Bank and Esgenoopetitj (also known as Burnt Church)

2006 reports Top 10 postal codes in the country with the lowest median income:

1. E9G - BURNT CHURCH FIRST NATION NB ($9,200) 2. K1K - VANIER ON ($9,500) 3. E9E - RED BANK RESERVE NB ($10,600) 4. E4W - ELSIPOGTOG FIRST NATION NB ($11,000) 5. E7H - TOBIQUE FIRST NATION NB ($12,300) 6. E1V - EEL GROUND ($13,000) 7. E3E - KINGSCLEAR FIRST NATION NB ($13,600) 8. V6A - VANCOUVER BC ($13,600) 9. E4T - ADAMSVILLE NB ($14,000) 10. R3A - WINNIPEG MB ($14,000)

• Two of the poorest communities in Canada are in Kent County New Brunswick, a riding represented provincially by Premier Shawn Graham (Lib) and federally by Dominic Leblanc (Lib) in 2010

• New Brunswick wage laws have yet to bring minimum wage workers above the national poverty line

• critics of the NB Poverty Reduction Plan say that it leaves out 97% of the neediest people in the province and that the focus was merely political, ‘Lets get them off welfare and let’s get them into the workforce and stop them from sucking from us’ as well as reduce the reported numbers of New Brunswickers on social assistance.

• The National Council of Welfare claims that New Brunswick has one of the lowest welfare rates for single employable adults, and would have to double that rate in order to bring it to the Atlantic Canadian average. This category represents the 3% of recipients who will see a change in their monthly dividends because of the NB Poverty Reduction Plan

• Missing from the Plan are initiatives to address pay equity, concerns regarding immigrants and seniors, and many current recipients who will not be affected until 2015.

• The Graham government's Poverty Reduction Plan failed to address the poverty as a women's issue, given that 55 per cent of New Brunswick’s 39,100 welfare recipients are female and 35% of recipients are children

• One of the most detrimental policies of the provincial welfare program is an agreement between the government and employers regarding employees receiving social assistance who are given tips from customers; employers are allowed to reduce that employee’s hourly wage which often brings it below minimum wage requirements.

• The province’s food banks are suffering from a lack of provincial funding, but nothing was allocated for them in the Poverty Reduction Plan

• Decision makers for the Poverty Reduction Plan were selected by the premier and without meaningful public consultation

poverty in Aboriginal-First Nations communities New Brunswick

• 6 of 7 of the 10 poorest Canadian communities in New Brunswick are the First Nations communities of Kingsclear, Eel Ground, Tobique, Elsipogtog, Red Bank and Esgenoopetitj (also known as Burnt Church)

• [1] [2] The poverty status of community of Tobique is remarkable, given that it is home to 4 high profile Liberal politicians: Tobique's elected chief, lawyer Stewart Charles Paul, former NB Attorney General T.J. Burke, Senator Sandra Lovelace and former federal Member of Parliament Andy Savoy as well as NB Aboriginal Secretariat Deputy Patrick Craig Francis and Graydon Nicholas, Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick.

It is reported that the tiny community is over $40 million in debt, has an illegal gambling casino and has had 4 suicides in the past 5 years, the most recent on March 7, 2010.

• Besides being one of the poorest in the country, the community of Elsipogtog, formerly known as Big Cove, has received national attention including a Royal Commission report because of the high number of suicides that began to take place in 1992. Suicides continued to take place regularly until in 2008, after the formation of the Elsipogtog Youth Council and a significant leadership change in membership in Elsipogtog's INAC-elected council, a hiatus in suicidal behaviors appears to have taken place.

• [3] [4] [5] Street and prescription drug abuse is a major concern for First Nations communities in New Brunswick. Two of the province's seven Methadone clinics are located in First Nations communities Elsipogtog and Oromocto.