
Non-profit groups wait for action on report


FREDERICTON - New Brunswick's non-profit organizations are anxiously waiting for the province to start implementing more than 100 recommendations on how to help volunteer groups.
"We have not seen any implementation yet of any of these recommendations," Brian Duplessis of the Fredericton Emergency Shelter said Thursday.
"We realize it does take time. We are hopeful in the fall we can work on some of these specific recommendations."
The government released a report in March titled Delivering on the Blueprint that spoke of creating a new partnership with non-profit organizations.
The report was based on a 2007 community non-profit task force, and it accepted more than 100 of the recommendations from the task force.
Among them: five-year funding commitments for non-profit groups; affordable liability insurance; access to health and pension plans; access to government rates for phone, utilities, printing and translation service; and a trust fund for non-profits with money from unclaimed lottery winnings.
The government also promised to refer the request for property tax relief to an overall review of the tax system.
Carmel Robichaud, the minister responsible for the new Community Non-Profit Organizations Secretariat, warned in March that it would take up to three years to implement all the recommendations.
"I am really pleased with what we are doing," she said in an interview. "We have to continue to develop the relationship with the non-profits throughout the province."
The secretariat has hired an executive director and announced a series of seven regional forums to discuss how best to implement the recommendations. The first was held in June in Miramichi.
The next forum is in the Acadian Peninsula in September and the Fredericton forum is scheduled for February.




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