PCs, Liberals point fingers over looming mental health hotline closure

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The Holt Liberals are defending their decision to cut funding to a mental health hotline, arguing in part that the defunding process was started by the former Higgs Progressive Conservative government.

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Several PC MLAs rose in the legislature Tuesday to chastise the Holt government for its recent budget decision to defund the CHIMO Helpline, which provides 24-hour bilingual crisis intervention services.

“People are heartsick about the funding cuts to CHIMO Helpline,” said Carleton-Victoria PC MLA Margaret Johnson. “It’s difficult to say how many lives have been saved by CHIMO’s mental health helpline since it started back in 1971.”

Last Friday, the John Howard Society of Fredericton announced the more than 50-year-old helpline would close effective March 28 due to “recent provincial funding cutbacks.”

But Liberal MLA Rob McKee, the minister responsible for addictions and mental health services, contends it was the Progressive Conservatives who started the funding cuts while in government to the service.

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“They were in government when funding was cut to the CHIMO hotline – $20,000 in 2023 that they stopped funding,” said McKee, who accused official opposition members of “grandstanding” during a fiery exchange with Riverview PC MLA Rob Weir in the legislature Tuesday.

McKee later elaborated on two critical decisions he said the former Higgs government made in relation to the future of the helpline. It first cut funding through the health department after the 2022-23 fiscal year – it provided $20,000 that year – and then a request for proposal was issued to create a new provincial addictions and mental health helpline.

Weir, who wasn’t in the former Higgs government, told reporters Tuesday he wasn’t aware of the decisions McKee referenced in the legislature.

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In a scrum, McKee acknowledged to reporters that despite the health department funding cut, some dollars for the CHIMO Helpline “continued through that time” through the Department of Social Development.

“The decision not to renew funding this year was not taken lightly,” Social Development Minister Cindy Miles told reporters. “There was a lot of consideration that went into that conversation and we had conversations with the service provider as well too, but there were other service providers that could provide the services more timely and they were filling those gaps that may have been there, so that’s why the decision was made.”

Almost $118,000 in funding was provided for the CHIMO Helpline by the Department of Social Development for the 2024-25 fiscal year, according to the government.

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Miles told reporters the “majority” of CHIMO calls were related to loneliness, and that there are a variety of hotlines available in the province to meet specific needs.

Clinically trained professionals are operating the new 24-hour, bilingual provincial addictions and mental health helpline, McKee said.

Those clinicians can make referrals to government services and community agencies that provide support for those with substance use, gambling and/or mental health concerns.

“(The new hotline) is meeting the needs of New Brunswickers and so there is no gap in service,” McKee said.

New provincial hotline doesn’t appeal to all

Green party Leader David Coon slammed the defunding of the CHIMO Helpline – a decision, he said, that rests with the Holt government who “brought the guillotine down” on the service.

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“There are many, many people who are fighting a mental illness that would never call a government number – they would not call a government number,” he said Tuesday.

“They’d call a number that was trusted – CHIMO, everybody knows about it – and hopefully they get the help in this crisis mode that they need, so it’s a huge mistake, it’s unwise that this funding was cut and CHIMO (has) to be closed down.”

In a letter released last week, the John Howard Society of Fredericton stated that “despite its best efforts to seek alternative solutions” in the face of provincial funding cutbacks to CHIMO, “the financial challenges have made it impossible to continue delivering the level of service and care that our community deserves.”

Brunswick News requested comment from John Barrow, executive director of the John Howard Society of Fredericton, but the newspaper did not receive a response as of deadline Tuesday.

Weir recognizes there are other helplines available in the province, but he maintains that defunding CHIMO quickly is “not the right way to go, in my opinion.”

“That hotline has been around for a long time,” he said. “Many people utilize it, it’s at the tip of their tongue and the tip of their fingers, so when you’re in crisis, you reach out for the easiest and the fastest thing you know the best.”

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