New BrunswickNew Brunswick is not acting fast enough to reduce violence against Indigenous women, 2SLGBTQ+ people, according to the province’s auditor general.Auditor general report says around 90 per cent of the province’s commitments haven’t been implementedSavannah Awde · CBC News · Posted: Dec 09, 2025 10:12 AM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Auditor General Paul Martin says the province is lagging behind on a safety plan for Indigenous women and 2SLGBTQ+ people. (CBC News)New Brunswick is failing to meet its commitments to address violence against Indigenous 2SLGBTQ+ people, women and girls, according to the auditor general.The auditor general’s report also said the Department of Women’s Equality had no information or data on missing and murdered Indigenous women in New Brunswick to measure its success in reducing violence.Auditor General Paul Martin said the province had implemented a maximum of 10 per cent of its commitments within the expected two-year time frame, as of the September 2023 to June 2025 audit period.In September 2023, the Department of Women’s Equality published 39 commitments in a plan titled “Weaving our Voices Together” — New Brunswick’s response to the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.Martin cited national data that indicated violence against Indigenous women and girls is six times higher than in the rest of the population. (CBC)Martin said in his report, issued Tuesday, that those action items “deserve renewed focus,” citing Statistics Canada data indicating a rate of violence six times higher for Indigenous women compared to the general population. Some of the commitments focus on domestic violence resources, trauma-informed and culturally-aware mental health and addictions services, and safer police responses.Martin said his office received conflicting information when it sought an update on how many of the 39 commitments had been completed — ranging from one, based on the department’s action tracking report, to four in an email from the department.Oversight on progress was also lacking, Martin said. Two committees were supposed to oversee the plan’s implementation and hold the department accountable to it, with one to have representatives from First Nations communities.Martin presented the latest auditor general report to members of a legislative committee on Tuesday. (Maria Burgos/CBC)But Martin found that neither of those committees had met since the plan was released in September 2023.Martin also noted the department was asked to implement the plan within an existing budget, and should evaluate whether lack of funding is a barrier. He called for greater transparency from the department in its progress reports, noting that the 2023-2024 report said 37 of 39 actions had been “initiated or completed.””Combining the status of initiated and completed actions as the only public-facing update limits transparency and makes it unclear what has been completed,” Martin wrote. Lyne Chantal Boudreau is the minister responsible for the Department of Women’s Equality in New Brunswick. In the auditor general’s report, the department agreed to act on all of the recommendations. (CBC News)In the report, the department agreed to act on all of the auditor general’s recommendations.But its response to Martin’s recommendation to gather data on violence against Indigenous women says, “formal data collection through national and provincial statistics is unreliable due to suppression of data for privacy reasons.”Instead, the department said it will consult with one of the oversight committees on how to obtain “relevant data” to measure progress.In response to Martin’s call for more transparency, the department said it will begin public reports on completed actions by June 2026.ABOUT THE AUTHORSavannah Awde is a reporter with CBC New Brunswick. You can contact her with story ideas at savannah.awde@cbc.ca.
N.B. slow to act on violence against Indigenous women, 2SLGBTQ+ people, watchdog says
