The New Brunswick Equal Opportunity Program () was a government program that transformed social services in the Canadian province of

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

. It was begun in 1967 under the leadership of premier Louis Robichaud. The program was one of a series of progressive reforms brought by Robichaud's

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

government. By the early 1960s New Brunswick had become a province with deep regional inequalities. The cause of this was that municipalities and counties were responsible for providing a wide range of services to their populations, but did not have an adequate tax base to pay for them. These services included health, welfare, education, and justice. In 1962 the

Royal Commission A royal commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue in some monarchies. They have been held in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Malaysia, Mauritius and Saudi Arabia. In republics an equi ...

on Finance and Municipal Taxation was formed. It proposed major services be operated by the province, funded by a market value assessment of property tax. Parts of the report were implemented as the Equal Opportunity Program on 1 January 1967. The province took responsibility for health, welfare, education, and justice. The

poll tax A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources. ''Poll'' is an archaic term for "head" or "top of the head". The sen ...

was abolished, the number of school districts was reduced to 34 from over 400, and property tax was imposed. Municipalities remained geographically unchanged, although they no longer provided social services. Local government in New Brunswick's extensive rural areas, outside of municipalities, had been provided by county councils. These were abolished, leaving the county with no political role, although the old county and parish borders are still used to define the local service districts that replaced county councils, and for the census subdivisions of

Census Canada Statistics Canada conducts a national census of population and census of agriculture every five years and releases the data with a two-year lag. The Census of Population provides demographic and statistical data that is used to plan public servi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:New Brunswick Equal Opportunity Program Defunct government agencies of New Brunswick