Social Development Minister Dorothy Shephard. (Photo credit: Government of New Brunswick)
The Higgs government cancelled the informal caregiver benefit in order to fund more than $16 million in wages increases for home care and family support workers.
Informal caregivers can be spouses, children, parents or friends who provide ongoing care without pay.
In Saint John on Friday, Social Development Minister Dorothy Shephard said the benefit established by the previous Liberal government wasn’t very thoughtful only covering a certain segment of the population.
Shephard says she regularly heard about the need for more funding for informal caregivers while going door-to-door and from constituents in her office.
“But financially that much money is not available and this benefit was only targeted for people who are disabled and on social assistance,” Shephard says.
Shephard says there was no accountability for the money so they couldn’t measure how it was doing.
She says about 4000 New Brunswickers were using the informal caregiver benefit but, more than 10,000 provincial workers will benefit from wage increases.
