A New Brunswick watchdog is raising the alarm over “significant” cuts to the province’s child welfare budget.

Advocate Kelly Lamrock released a report Thursday focusing on a $33.6-million cut to child welfare services in the Department of Social Development.

“This is the most significant single-year reduction to services for vulnerable children in recent memory,” Lamrock said in a news release.

“Our office has warned for two years that under-budgeting actual demand would eventually lead to damaging cuts. That warning was not heeded, and now we are seeing the consequences.”

Lamrock noted that expenditures have continually been higher than budgeted in recent years, and subsequent budgets have not kept pace.

For example, the government budgeted $181.9 million in 2024-25, but actual expenses came in much higher at $231.8 million.

For the current fiscal year, the finance department budgeted $208.3 million, higher than last year’s budgeted amount, but lower than what was actually spent.

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Lamrock said no evidence has been provided to justify the assumption that service needs will decline, and no modelling of future costs or the future impact of cuts was done.

In addition, new responsibilities under the Child and Youth Well-Being Act have not been accompanied by new funding, which the advocate said creates an “unfunded mandate.”

Lamrock said the cuts will put pressure on every front-line worker to consider budget cuts first and the child’s needs second.

“Costs of child welfare programs have gone up mostly because of a record number of teenagers requiring crisis interventions and expensive help,” he added.

“The government’s ‘cut first, plan second’ approach will simply cut programs that keep the next 100 children at risk from falling into an expensive crisis.”

Lamrock noted his office has already dealt with a number of cases where children are already slipping through the cracks due to austerity-based decision-making.

The advocate is urging the province to reconsider the budget reduction and to publish a mitigation plan by June 30 outlining the expected impact and how children will be protected.