Two recent deaths of unhoused people in New Brunswick as temperatures drop have highlighted the urgency of the situation and raised concerns at the provincial legislature.
“I’ve received terrible news that a homeless person has died in Saint John,” PC Leader Glen Savoie told the Legislature on Thursday.
“We’ve had our first snowstorm, it’s getting colder. We’ve had deaths in Miramichi, Fredericton, and now Saint John.”
Housing Minister David Hickey said he’s aware of two deaths of unhoused people in Saint John. Both Hickey and Savoie’s ridings are in the city.
“My community in particular was really impacted by it. I knew both individuals personally, knew the struggle that they faced in our community over the past many years,” said Hickey.
He did not say how the people died but said they are separate incidents.
Savoie called the deaths “preventable” and said the governing Liberals are moving too slow on issues surrounding housing.
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“Every single one of (the deaths) represents a failure of our system,” he said.
Green Leader David Coon said multiple governments have lacked urgency.
“This government is still unclear where they’re going because right now they’re doing stopgap measures with these sleeping cabins, like the one in my riding, which are designed primarily to reduce the number of people sleeping in encampments,” said Coon.
In response, Hickey said the province has a ministerial taskforce in place and plans to release a homelessness strategy by the end of the year.
“Our commitment to New Brunswickers, and the vision that we’ve laid out to New Brunswickers, is to act. And that is why we are doing so expeditiously, in a way that hasn’t been done in this province before,” Hickey said.
— with a file from Rebecca Lau
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