Social Needs - Election 2024

Few issues in recent years have been as high-profile and difficult to manage for municipalities as homelessness and poverty. Moncton is no different from hundreds of other communities across Canada in confronting these social issues.

As the province’s largest city, it is also no surprise that Moncton records more homeless people on its By Names List and in the annual count of homeless individuals by the Department of Social Development. We have all seen the manifestation of homelessness and poverty on our streets – especially in our downtown core: mental health issues, severe addiction, open-air drug use, panhandling and vagrancy, vandalism, and thefts.

While there has been some increased partnership between the province and City of Moncton in recent months to deal with this issue, so much more needs to be done. The next New Brunswick government must make solving our homeless epidemic a priority from Day 1. 

Simply directing vulnerable individuals to temporary shelters without sufficient mental health and addiction services, a pathway to permanent housing, and job re-skilling is an abdication of responsibility by the province. At the same time, cities like Moncton are not equipped with the expertise or financial capacity to respond to this crisis.

We have been a national leader in responding to these challenges – in 2024 alone we spent a total of $5.1 million to address social issues – but have exhausted our capacity to help in this area. 

To date we have: 

• increased our social grant funding to $1.2 million – a 727 per cent increase from 2014
• offered locations to house out-of-the-cold shelters
• approved a lease for use of the Moncton Lions Community Centre for a year-round drop-in centre
• financially supported Rising Tide and the Humanity Project’s JOSH Project
• spent $140,000 each year to clean up tent encampment sites
• spent $100,000 to update our Social Inclusion Plan