The high cost of living has created challenges for many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and Canadians. A new Poverty Reduction Plan will help ease some of those pressures, as contribute to improved health, income and food security.

Highlights of our plan include:

• Increasing the Newfoundland and Labrador Child Benefit by 300 per cent. Newfoundland and Labrador now has the highest child benefits in Atlantic Canada, and the third highest in Canada
• Expanding the Prenatal-Infant Nutritional Supplement up to age five and renaming it the Prenatal-Early Childhood Nutrition Supplement. The new supplement is now the best in Canada.
• Increased funding for school food programs.
• Providing additional funding to ensure school lunch programs are available in all Pre- Kindergarten and K-9 schools.
• Continuing the Employment Stability Pilot province-wide; and providing enhanced programming to train and connect non-employment insurance eligible individuals to employment.
• Increasing the comfort allowance immediately by $50 per month to a total of $175 monthly for people staying in temporary accommodations where meals are provided, such as emergency homeless shelters.
• Implementing a second targeted Basic Income Pilot for people aged 60 to 64 who currently receive Income Support and the Community Supports Program through the Department of Health and Community Services. Pilot participants will receive an increase in payments to match federal seniors benefits available to people aged 65 and over. This will allow for more adequate and stable financial supports.
• A targeted poverty reduction plan for seniors will be released in the coming months. This will be informed by further stakeholder conversations.

View our two-pager (pdf) info sheet here.

Access to safe, accessible, and affordable housing has been a critical element of improving the social and economic well-being of our communities. Actions have been guided by the largest ever investment in housing, and a commitment to improving access to affordable housing, housing that is affordable, and creating safe and secure housing options.

Highlights of our plan include:

• More than 750 new public housing options have been advanced over the last two years.
• More than 2,000 individuals and families access permanent housing over the two years.
• Expansion completed or underway of 165 emergency shelter beds.
• 76 supportive housing units.
• 12 second stage housing units, and shelter beds for women.
• A five-point plan to stimulate new home construction, as well as stabilize or reduce housing prices. These actions will result in upwards of 500 new housing options, at a cost of more than $65 million.
• A provincial investment of over $80 million in the Affordable Rental Housing Program, which will support 91 private and community sector projects that will result in the construction of more than 900 new affordable rental homes.
• Continued work to support future construction of a new $30 million integrated health, housing, and supportive services hub in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
• Issued a request for quotations for repairs and renovations to 143 provincially-owned vacant units, supported by an investment of close to $6 million.

We are actively working with community partners to increase capacity so that all children and families are able to access the early learning and child care services they need while contributing to an inclusive and thriving province.

Highlights of our plan include:

• There are almost 8,300 child care spaces operating at $10-a-day or lower the province, with over a 1,000 new spaces being created in 2023.
• Eighteen pre-kindergarten sites are now open throughout Newfoundland and Labrador, creating 340 child care spaces. A further 17 sites will open in September, representing total space creation of 600 through this program.
• In addition to spaces and sites already created, there are 63 child care providers in various stages of the process to open a not-for-profit child care centre in Newfoundland and Labrador, including:
  14 sites in development in Central/East region;
  24 sites in development in Western/Labrador region; and
  25 sites in development in St. John’s metro region.
• This year, over 100 early childhood educators have joined or rejoined the workforce. There are approximately 1,200 early childhood educators working in Newfoundland and Labrador.
• In addition to the recently created early childhood educator wage grid, a francophone bonus of $5,178 has been created, effective April 1, 2023, for certified francophone early childhood educators working in regulated francophone child care services.