N.B. disability advocates disappointed by unaddressed reforms
Global News
The Department of Social Development unveiled social assistance reforms on Monday but advocates say key asks are missing, including the elimination of the household income policy.
New Brunswick’s Department of Social Development has unveiled some social assistance reform but didn’t address one of the biggest priorities for advocates.
On Monday, Minister Bruce Fitch outlined plans to improve specific parts of the social assistance programs.
The province will no longer consider child support payments as a part of a household’s income. It will not see its assistance reduced if it also gets help from the Canada-New Brunswick Housing Benefit. Compensation as a result of a workplace injury will also no longer be considered as part of the household income.
The province will now allow nurse practitioners to sign disability forms required by the government. The rates for social assistance will now match inflation. The reforms also provide a clearer and extended definition of the disability of being deaf.
The amount of money a person can make has also increased to $500 without impacting assistance levels, and 50 cents for every other dollar worked.
It also eliminates the deduction of shelter, which means people using relatives or friends to house themselves won’t have their assistance impacted either.
However, advocates said these are positive reforms, but consultation has been minimal, and many of the key priorities and asks are left out.
Ability New Brunswick executive director Haley Flaro said one of those was the elimination of the household income policy.
The Alberta government says it will go ahead next year with a trial to up the speed limit on some rural divided highways to 120 kilometres per hour.
The family of a 22-year-old Ontario man who went missing at the Mont-Tremblant, Que., ski resort more than 10 months ago are renewing efforts to find him.
Watch the online news edition of Global Okanagan at 5:30 p.m.
The cat first came to the attention of neighbours in the Burnaby building who said the it had been locked on a balcony, in the elements, for about three months.
Regina police disciplined an officer for repeatedly accessing personal data of six citizens without authorization 67 times throughout the course of three years.
The list was chosen based on the scale of the devastation, the number of Canadians affected and the financial toll, with wildfires taking the top spot.
Manitoba RCMP say a fisherman is missing after his side-by-side went through the ice.
The population boom recorded in Nova Scotia since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have come to an end.
New data suggests the majority of Canadians support efforts to expand oil and gas development, including expanding and building pipelines — but within that, their support differs.
Hamilton police say they have arrested 21 people in connection with hundreds of 'organized retail thefts' at multiple Shoppers Drug Mart locations across Ontario, Quebec and B.C.
In October, U.S. President Donald Trump cancelled trade talks with Canada after Ontario aired an anti-tariff ad featuring former U.S. president Ronald Reagan.
Operations are set to resume Friday at the K3 potash mine in Esterhazy, Sask., after a fatal incident earlier this week.
Toronto is seeing a sharp 54.3 per cent decline in homicides and violent crimes this year, but police and a community leader warn the progress is fragile.