In November 2009, the Government of New Brunswick released its poverty reduction strategy, Overcoming Poverty Together - The New Brunswick Economic and Social Inclusion Plan. In this seminar, James Hughes, Deputy Minister for Social Development, discusses the key elements of the New Brunswick plan. It includes opportunities for meeting basic needs through reforming social assistance and raising the minimum wage, opportunities for lifelong learning and skills acquisition, and opportunities for community participation, neighbourhood engagement and social enterprise.
Learning Objective:
To learn about and begin to understand the provincial poverty reduction strategy in New Brunswick
To learn what progress is being made on poverty reduction in the province
To understand the relevance and importance of community engagement in the strategy
Mark Cabaj - Mark Cabaj is a founding Principal of Tamarack – An Institute for Community Engagement, an organization based in Waterloo, Ontario, focused on assisting people build strong communities through local action.
Mark joined Tamarack in 2002 and is currently the Executive Director of Vibrant Communities – a network of communities and national organizations that use collaborative, comprehensive approaches to substantially reduce poverty within Canada.
James Hughes - James Hughes is Deputy Minister of the Department of Social Development, and the President of the New Brunswick Housing Corporation. He is a lawyer by training, and previously served as the Director General of the Old Brewery Mission, Montreal’s largest centre serving men and women dealing with homelessness. He has served on the board of various local and national organizations including the National Council on Welfare, Social Enterprise Development Innovations, Youth Employment Services and Portage Addiction Services.
Because Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador have crafted successful provincial poverty reduction plans, other provinces have been inspired to take on the issue. In New Brunswick, a supportive minister and champions in government ranks also helped drive the initiative.
James explained that no government has been able to reduce poverty alone, as it takes all sectors working together. The New Brunswick plan had shared leadership embedded in its structure, with three co-chairs from business, voluntary and government sectors. The plan was nonpartisan, as the opposition leader and his party were asked and agreed to support the process as well.
The design phase asked:
What causes poverty?
What can be done to reduce it?
This phase involved over 2500 New Brunswickers through letters, meetings, and electronic participation. Bilingual animators went to non-traditional venues like homeless shelters to gather ideas. All the views were consolidated in a draft report titled A Choir of Voices.
Next, a 30 member roundtable of experts, including those with experience of living in poverty, decoded what was said, to form a framework. They produced an Options Document that had four categories:
Global objectives
Indicators
How do we achieve poverty reduction
Who’s doing to do it
Finally, the Premier of New Brunswick convened a forum, inviting 50 participants from all sectors to form a consensus plan, working from the Options document. The resulting document, Overcoming Poverty Together, is now the provincial poverty reduction strategy.
James explains why the NB government chose a public engagement model, and how it led to people making decisions together.
The New Brunswick plan aims to reduce poverty by 25 percent, and deep income poverty by 50% by 2015. The province has committed to updating the plan every five years. The plan contains 22 action areas in three broad areas:
Opportunities for Being (meeting basic needs)
Opportunities for Becoming (life-long learning and skills acquisition)
Opportunities for Belonging (community participation)
In this clip, James gives an overview of the content of the plan, including examples of initiatives in each of the categories.
On the day that the plan was launched, the Province of New Brunswick announced it would:
Eliminate the Interim Assistance Program - a low social assistance benefit for single employable people, who are now covered under an existing higher rate program
Extend supplementary health care benefits for up to three years – up from 12 months – for clients who are leaving social assistance for a job
Eliminate the social assistance system’s household income policy. Forum participants living in poverty stated repeatedly that, in order to better their circumstances and exit the social assistance system, they needed to be able to pool their resources and share expenses with no penalties being applied to their eligibility for social assistance
To implement the plan, the government established a new crown corporation, the Economic and Social Inclusion Corporation. Just as in the design phase, 22 members from business, government, nonprofits and people living in poverty are part of the decision-making.
The corporation will oversee the formation of community inclusion networks throughout the province. The job of the community-level networks is to create local poverty reduction plans. James said that he believes that the community networks are unique to New Brunswick’s poverty reduction plan, that they haven’t been tried anywhere else.
In this clip, James explains the importance of having local plans as well as a provincial one.
The Economic and Social Inclusion Corporation will set baselines and establish indicators, both at the provincial and local levels, as well communicating progress on poverty reduction to all New Brunswickers.
James outlines here how he hopes local networks will help build provincial coherence. He underlines the importance of connecting targets and measures at the community and provincial levels.
Because the process was nonpartisan and enjoys wide support, James doesn’t expect elections or changes in government to derail or significantly change the plan.
As many other provinces now have or are working on their own poverty reduction plans, he believes the next step might be to consider how a national poverty reduction plan could help.
In this clip, James gives credit to other provinces that inspired or helped develop the New Brunswick plan, and looks forward to the dialogue about a national plan.
How important do you think shared leadership was to the success of the public engagement strategy?
Do you think the community inclusion networks will influence the provincial strategy, and how?
If you live outside New Brunswick, what differences do you observe between this poverty reduction strategy compared to governmental poverty reduction strategies in the area where you live?
To reflect on these and other important questions, refer to the Resources and Links below.
Economic and Social Inclusion Plan - Progress Report - This is the main web page for the New Brunswick poverty reduction plan. The site contains links to reports, news about the plan, as well as links to poverty reduction initiatives from across Canada. Access the site here.
Breaking down the welfare wall in New Brunswick - This commentary by the Caledon Institute lauds New Brunswick’s poverty reduction strategy, and highlights other needed reforms, such as a boost to the New Brunswick Child Tax Benefit. Access the commentary here.
Framing Poverty as a Complex Issue and Why That Matters - This audio seminar makes the case for framing poverty as a complex issue, describes key features of complex issues, and explores the implications for leading and managing efforts to reduce poverty. Access the seminar here.
Comprehensive Strategies for Deep Outcomes - This audio seminar explains how complex issues, like poverty, where factors are dynamic and inter-related, require comprehensive or ‘joined-up’ solutions. Access the seminar here.
In November 2009, the Government of New Brunswick released its poverty reduction strategy, Overcoming Poverty Together - The New Brunswick Economic and Social Inclusion Plan. In this seminar, James Hughes, Deputy Minister for Social Development, discusses the key elements of the New Brunswick plan. It includes opportunities for meeting basic needs through reforming social assistance and raising the minimum wage, opportunities for lifelong learning and skills acquisition, and opportunities for community participation, neighbourhood engagement and social enterprise.
Mark Cabaj - Mark Cabaj is a founding Principal of Tamarack – An Institute for Community Engagement, an organization based in Waterloo, Ontario, focused on assisting people build strong communities through local action.
James Hughes - James Hughes is Deputy Minister of the Department of Social Development, and the President of the New Brunswick Housing Corporation. He is a lawyer by training, and previously served as the Director General of the Old Brewery Mission, Montreal’s largest centre serving men and women dealing with homelessness. He has served on the board of various local and national organizations including the National Council on Welfare, Social Enterprise Development Innovations, Youth Employment Services and Portage Addiction Services.
