More housing, more quickly, top priority for spending N.B. budget surplus
Fredericton residents wonder why government can't add social housing units at a faster pace
An announcement by the New Brunswick government that it will spend $102.2 million over the next four years to add 380 public housing units, and repair 110 others, is welcome news, but some say it's not nearly enough.
Under the plan, Saint John, Fredericton and Moncton will each get 40 new units over a four year span, with an additional 68 units added in northern New Brunswick. Another 192 units will be established in areas of greatest need, while 110 N.B. Housing units that are currently unlivable will be repaired and renovated.
Meanwhile, the wait list for public housing continues to balloon. One year ago there were 5,941 individuals and families on the list. The Department of Social Development says there are now more than 8,700 waiting.
As food costs rise, and vacancy rates drop, affordable housing is a top priority for many New Brunswickers, with improved access to health care a very close second.
CBC News asked people who are struggling, and those trying to help, how the government could best spend some of the $135.5-million budget surplus it's projecting for this fiscal year.
Sandy Robb, Fredericton
Sandy Robb, 65, lives on a fixed income and has experienced homelessness in the past. A battle with lung cancer has left her with chronic health problems, but she is still able to volunteer at her local church and as a peer support worker at Riverstone Recovery Centre in downtown Fredericton.
Her advice to the Blaine Higgs government is to spend some of its projected budget surplus of $135.5 million on more housing, more quickly.
"I think some of the money — not all of it, but some of it — should go into the housing programs because there's so many people on the streets here in Fredericton."
She knows of people who have been on the waiting list for more than three years and are losing hope they will ever be offered an apartment.
"People are already asking me on the street, 'How do I get housing Sandy?'"
She tells them to "hold on," but says many aren't sure they can.
"One lady I know, she's in a tent, and last week she come to me when I was at work and she said, 'Sandy, you know where I can get blankets and another tent?' And I said, 'Why dear?' And she said 'Somebody burned my tent down.' And now she's out in the cold completely."
'There shouldn't be a surplus'
Beyond more housing, more quickly, Robb believes the government should be returning the excess it collects to taxpayers as quickly as they money rolls in.
"There shouldn't be a surplus. It should be already used for what we need, like the housing and the food cost," she said.
From Robb's perspective, there is no longer a middle class.
"We're all poor," she said. "You go from $650 a month rent to $900, that's a big jump. And your grocery costs from $200 a month to $400? That's crazy."
Robb has $300 in her budget for groceries each month. She said she recently paid $94 for just three bags of items.
During the summer she was one of the 45,600 individuals who received the Emergency Food and Fuel Benefit of $225. As winter approaches, she believes it's time the government considered another payment.
"I don't turn my heat on until after December," she said. "It's scary."
"I filled my freezer with the $225. I went shopping when the sales were on … so that did me the summer."
Jeff Thompson, Fredericton
Jeff Thompson is an entrepreneur and volunteer in Fredericton. On weekends he prepares and serves meals at Fredericton Community Kitchens, and every week he helps out with vaccination clinics at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital.
Like Robb, he knows many who are "housing insecure," and he believes increased affordable housing and health care are most in need of attention and money.
"Both files are are interrelated," he said when asked how the government's projected budget surplus could be best spent. "If I could pick two, I would say housing and health."
He was happy to hear this week's announcement that the provincial government will build 40 new social housing units in the Fredericton region over four years, but wonders why the goal is just 10 units per year, given the immediate need.
"The problem is now," Thompson said. "I always question why do these programs need to be so little because it sounds like a great headline when you say [100] million until you read the fine print that it's $25 million a year roughly."
Thompson wonders what is holding government back from finding other options to build more units quickly.
"People need a place to sleep and live and if we don't address it, it is going to become a limiting factor on population growth in other areas."
As for heath care, Thompson believes it's time to look at alternative ways to deliver primary care. He says he would happily shift to a "multidisciplinary practice" to free up doctors for other New Brunswickers.
"I bet you 99 per cent of the things that I've seen my doctor for over the last 10 or 15 years — a nurse practitioner, an LPN or somebody in the office could have handled all of that without having to see a doctor," he said. "So I would gladly shift if that created additional capacity for those that really need to see a doctor."
Kaitlyn Gillis, Fredericton
Kaitlyn Gillis left New Brunswick in 2013, returning in April 2020 when the pandemic began.
She says it was an "eye opening experience" to see how the cost of living had increased in the time she was away, and the decline in the availability of healthcare.
She is a sustainability specialist with an architecture firm and mother to two young children. Gillis agrees housing should be the top priority for spending and hopes government will think "outside the box" when it comes to where and what type of housing is built.
"Just popping up the same type of residential environment everywhere — mid-to-high-density residential environments — without providing those amenity spaces or access to the parks or accesses to food or public transportation or bike or rolling networks, is something that we really need to keep in mind," she said.
Gillis wonders whether prefabricated modular construction could speed up the timeline.
"I know that construction takes time, but I also think we could be looking at things in a novel perspective," she said.
Like Robb and Thompson, she agrees that "having a safe place to call your own" will also reduce the burden on the health care system.
"There are just so many trickle-down effects when you have a roof over your head."
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with files from Information Morning Fredericton