Dialogue NB Continues Conversation On Social Cohesion

Dialogue NB is seeking your input as it evaluates the current state of social cohesion in New Brunswick.

CEO Nadine Duguay-Lemay said it is the first time they have launched a province-wide consultation of this magnitude.

“This project really aims to do this public consultation over a year-long process,” Duguay-Lemay said in a phone interview.

The first part of the public consultation, which continues until May 31, is designed to obtain “a reading of the pulse of New Brunswick,” she said.

Duguay-Lemay said the organization measures social cohesion in three different ways.

“As an individual, do you have a strong network of social relations. The second dimension is your sense of belonging, your sense of connectedness to your community. The last is really the focus on the common good,” Duguay-Lemay said in a phone interview.

Duguay-Lemay pointed to a 2019 report by the organization which found most communities feel a strong sense of connectedness.

But the same report found New Brunswick still needs to work on certain areas, such as the acceptance of diversity.

“New Brunswick cannot just be painted with one brush,” said Duguay-Lemay.

The results of September’s provincial election also seem to have amplified some of the challenges the organization hears, she said.

“That division between north and south, for example, rural/urban, even we could say Liberal/Conservative and so on,” said Duguay-Lemay, “but our data shows it’s much more complex than that.”

Once the first portion of public consultation is complete at the end of May, a report will be released seeking solutions to social cohesion challenges facing the province.