New Brunswick will be increasing the minimum wage to $7.75 and will continue to review the wage at least once a year to bring the wage in line with standards of living. (Read more on CBC, "N.B.'s minimum wage to increase by 50 cents".) Although after the hike, New Brunswick will no longer have the lowest minimum wage in Canada, some advocates say it still does not account for inflation or for a decent standard of living. Read a CCPA report from March 2007, Bringing Minimum Wages Above the Poverty Line (in PDF) that shows provincial governments have allowed the value of minimum wages to be eaten away by inflation for too long.

Across the country there are two projects involving low income women taking photographs of their lives. In Saskatchewan a group of First Nations women are photographing what they see everyday as part of a project called The Marginalization of Indigenous Women. In New Brunswick, a group of low income women were asked to take photos of their joys and frustrations. Some of photos were of a electricity bill, a fridge door or a luxury cruise ship docked in the harbour. Read more about these two photo exhibits on CBC: "First Nations women use 'photo voice' to tell stories," and "Saint John display exhibits the power of poverty."

Vibrant Communities Saint John (VCSJ) was founded in 2004. Saint John community organizers take pride in the rich interwoven relationships that form the basis of their work to identify and remove the traps that keep people in poverty. This is the fourth in a series of stories on the key ideas that guide the poverty reduction work. A report by the Caledon Institute of Social Policy is available in PDF.