N.B. government opens new anti-racism office in response to 2022 report

More than three years after a report on systemic racism made dozens of recommendations to the government, officials in New Brunswick say it has become the fifth province in Canada to create an anti-racism office.

Minister of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Jean-Claude D’Amours announced Friday that the new office has already been created within his department and will address the 86 recommendations from the 2022 report.

D’Amours says a new website tracking the government’s progress on those recommendations will launch Friday afternoon.

The government says work has begun, or been completed, on 59 per cent of the recommendations and it has identified another 19 per cent that it will start to work on.

Among the recommendations was a call for a strategic plan to combat hate and discrimination, a concerted effort for more racial representation on agencies boards and commissions and more race-based data collection, including in hospitals where many complained about racist treatment in emergency rooms.

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It’s the first official government response to the systemic racism report, which was delivered to former premier Blaine Higgs’ Progressive Conservative government.

The current Liberal government promised a response during the fall 2024 election campaign.