N.B. news: Advocate says social services struggling [Video]

New Brunswick’s child, youth and seniors’ advocate is calling on the province to reduce red tape, and add better oversight when it comes to running its social programs, including healthcare, housing, senior care and child care.

Kelly Lamrock says, in many ways, the system is the same as it was in the mid-1990’s, and has allowed New Brunswickers to fall through the cracks because they don’t fit into a box on a checklist.

He used one example of a family with children who needed extra resources at school. The school said it couldn’t provide those resources on a daily basis, and the students could only attend on a part-time basis.

“The parents had hourly shift work, so they had to quit their jobs because there was no way they could do both. And then they wound up on social assistance and then they lost their housing,” he said. “But then, …