FREDERICTON -- New Brunswick's health minister has decided to move the province's youth mental health centre to Moncton from Campbellton.
A new facility was under construction in Campbellton but Ted Flemming halted that work earlier this year after provincial ombud, Charles Murray, called on the government to reconsider its plans.
Flemming says a new Moncton location for the youth mental health centre will be chosen, and former MLA, and child and youth advocate, Bernard Richard, has agreed to help in that process.
"The Centre of Excellence for Youth will relocate to Moncton and the facility in Campbelltown will be repurposed to expand the residential addiction rehabilitative treatment program in Campbellton," said Flemming.
Norm Bosse, the current child and youth advocate, says he's pleased with the decision.
"I know there are going to be some disappointed people in the Campbellton area, I know some people who live there, and I know some of the politicians are going to look at this and say it's a bad decision," said Bosse.
"Look, we said it. We looked at it from a child-rights impact assessment, and we've come up with a position that is, you know, Bernard Richard got it right the first time."
No timeline has been set to find the new location, and in the meantime, young people requiring mental health treatment will continue to be treated at the Restigouche Hospital Centre in Campbellton.
Flemming says $10 million will be spent in the 2020-21 capital budget to complete the new facility in Campbellton and use it to increase capacity for residential addiction rehab treatment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2019.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Laura Brown.
