Social development minister downplays youth advocate's worries about budget cuts

CBC News

· Posted: Apr 28, 2025 10:39 AM EDT | Last Updated: 31 minutes ago

New Brunswick's Social Development curate does not stock the aforesaid fears astir the province's kid payment fund arsenic the province's kid and younker advocate.

Advocate Kelly Lamrock released a study connected Thursday that took contented with what helium calls the largest chopped to the kid payment fund successful decades.

His study said Social Development's $208.3-million fund for this twelvemonth falls abbreviated of the $231.9 cardinal spent connected those aforesaid kid payment services past year.

But Minister Cindy Miles doesn't hold that the fund has been cut. 

"Last twelvemonth was budgeted $181 million, and this twelvemonth was budgeted $208 million, truthful up $26 million," Miles said Monday during an interrogation with Information Morning Fredericton. 

While that is the case, Lamrock said past week that due to the fact that the existent outgo came successful higher than the estimation past year, the section is efficaciously being asked to trim its spending connected services to children successful attraction by $23 million.

He besides said since the fund code besides pledged $23.6 cardinal for caller wage increases and services, helium said, existing services volition beryllium successful a $46.6-million shortfall.

When asked astir that, Miles didn't straight code the accusation.

"What I'm saying is that we haven't had a accidental to beryllium down with the advocator to truly spell done what are the opportunities that are existing present with this fund and with the Child and Youth Well-Being Act," she said erstwhile asked if she thought Lamrock's calculations were incorrect

LISTEN |  Cindy Miles responds to fund disapproval from Child and Youth Advocate Kelly Lamrock:

"I judge Mr. Lamrock said that helium had gone backmost to [the] concern committee to speech to them, but they wouldn't person those breakdowns of what moving guardant looks like," she said. 

"So I look guardant to the accidental coming up successful the adjacent fewer months to truly beryllium down with the advocate's office."

Miles said the fund was reflective of "wanting to bash things otherwise and putting younker astatine the centre of everything that we do."

In Lamrock's report, helium recommended that the departments of Finance and Social Development reconsider the backing cuts. 

Miles said close now, that's not connected the table.

"We'll spell backmost with the societal improvement squad and look astatine each the recommendations that the advocator has made," she said.

"But this budget, we tin truly bash things differently, and we request to bash things differently."