The New Brunswick government has heeded concerns about the significant impact of dementia, by announcing plans to invest $2 million in a provincial dementia strategy. “These funds will be used to enhance the quality of life for people living with dementia and those that care for them,” Finance Minister René Legacy said in his budget speech on March 18, 2025.
There are about 12,000 people in New Brunswick who have dementia, a number that is expected to double by 2050. Legacy said the strategy would contribute to dementia prevention and also enable people with the brain disorder to live at home for as long as safely possible.
Six years ago, New Brunswick held public consultations on the development of a provincial dementia strategy, though one never came to fruition, leaving stakeholders disappointed.
With the latest budget announcement, there is renewed hope that New Brunswick will finally join its Atlantic counterparts in having a dementia plan. Nova Scotia launched its first dementia strategy in 2014, though its three-year action plan has expired. In Prince Edward Island, the seniors action plan includes some general steps related to dementia, but there is no detailed strategy to improve dementia care. Newfoundland & Labrador’s dementia plan ends next year.
At the national level, the federal government launched a pan-Canadian dementia strategy in 2019, though it was the last to do so among G8 countries.
In developing a comprehensive plan, the New Brunswick government will be tasked with identifying priorities and allocating funds to improve dementia care and quality of life across the province. This is no easy task, with dementia having significant social, economic, health and legal impacts, not only for people with the disorder but also for their caregivers and families.
To help guide the strategy, the government should consider human dignity as the organizing principle. Dignity means that everyone, including everyone with dementia, has intrinsic worth, simply by virtue of being human.
While most care interactions are positive, many people with dementia receive undignified treatment, leaving them prematurely stripped of their decision-making rights, left in soiled diapers, their physical and emotional pain ignored, and their reports of abuse not believed.
Thankfully there is the political will to invest in positive change. Last year, for example, the federal government and New Brunswick signed the Aging with Dignity bi-lateral agreement to improve standards in long-term, home and community care. This fiscal year, the province will invest over $1.5 million to continue that work.
In the forthcoming dementia strategy, preserving dignity should be more than an aspirational goal; it should be the fundamental guiding principle behind all actions.
“Every person, regardless of age, is entitled to live in dignity, free from discrimination and abuse,” said former Supreme Court of Canada chief justice Beverley McLachlin in a speech at the 2007 annual conference on elder law in Vancouver, B.C.
With these words in mind, let’s hope the provincial government moves quickly on a strategy that takes meaningful steps to ensure dignified lives for all New Brunswickers with dementia.
Heather Campbell Pope is founder of Dementia Justice Canada, a small nonprofit dedicated to safeguarding the rights and dignity of people with dementia. She lives in St. Stephen, N.B.
