A Liberal motion to create the position of a provincial mental health advocate passed unanimously in the legislature recently.
The motion is non-binding but the opposition hopes the Higgs government will move quickly.
Liberal social development critic Lisa Harris, MLA for Miramichi Bay-Neguac, notes how mental health is an urgent issue in the province.
“If we wait until the next budget, it could be another year before such a person is in place. We’ve got immediate and growing issues with things such as homelessness, suicide and drug addiction,” she says.
Social development minister Dorothy Shepard says she intends to look at resources already available and what might be needed to make it happen.
However, she repeatedly declined to give a timeline.
