A new grant is being introduced by the Gallant government to support New Brunswickers who want to adopt a child.
The $1,000 payment is designed to help offset the costs of adoption.
Suzanne Kingston, executive director of the New Brunswick Adoption Foundation, says legal costs can often become a burden at the end of the process.
“It probably could make or break how things will go. So it can really make a huge difference,” she notes.
Courtney Pringle-Carver, a board of director with the New Brunswick Adoption Foundation, says her stepfather went through numerous foster homes and was never adopted.
“His life would have been enormously different had he felt that sense of belonging and even wanted,” she says.
According to the Ministry of Families and Children, about 500 children are now in provincial care.
This grant is also available for private adoptions and international adoptions.
To qualify, the adoption must meet the province’s adoption requirements and the adoption order must be issued and/or recognized by the Province of New Brunswick.
As well, the adoptee must be living permanently with the adoptive family in New Brunswick.
