Lacklustre is how one New Brunswick anti-poverty group is describing this week’s provincial budget.

Janelle LeBlanc, provincial coordinator of the Common Front for Social Justice, said her group’s requests were all but ignored.

“We anticipated investments that would have an impact on people’s everyday lives, and you know, we expected there to be a real political will to eliminate poverty and put in place structural solutions to help people,” LeBlanc said in an interview.

“There’s been four consecutive surpluses, we’re dealing with so many crises in New Brunswick and poverty issues are increasing.”

LeBlanc said they had hoped to see new social assistance investments in the budget, but there was nothing to be found.

“What we saw in the budget were announcements from last fall and the annual indexation,” she said.

Social assistance rates will increase by 3.6 per cent as of April 1 to match inflation.

The province also committed to continuing its $200 monthly top-up for social assistance recipients.

LeBlanc said when rates are indexed to inflation, they are really unchanged in terms of purchasing power.

With prices continuing to rise, she believes many social assistance recipients will be faced with difficult decisions.

“Many social recipients are still going to get less than $1,000 a month. I don’t know who can live with $1,000 a month,” she said.