New Brunswick·Updated
New Brunswick’s projected budget deficit for this year has increased $265 million to almost $1.7 billion. That pushes the province’s total accumulated debt to more than $16 billion.
Increased spending on health and social development drives shortfall $265 million higher
Jacques Poitras · CBC News
· Posted: Aug 27, 2026 1:28 PM EDT | Last Updated: 12 minutes ago
Listen to this article
Estimated 4 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
New Brunswick Finance Minister René Legacy offered a first-quarter fiscal update on Thursday. (Michael Heenan/CBC)
New Brunswick’s already large budget deficit is ballooning even more.
The province’s first-quarter fiscal update is projecting a shortfall this year of almost $1.7 billion dollars — $265 million higher than what March’s budget was forecasting.
That will boost the province’s total accumulated debt to $16.1 billion by the end of the 2026-27 fiscal year, above the $15.9 billion originally projected by Finance Minister René Legacy in March.
The debt-to-gross domestic product ratio, a measure of the debt relative to economic output, is increasing from the expected 30.8 per cent to 31.3 per cent.
The minister said the government is still “looking at all possible options” to reduce spending and his department was working with other departments to find savings.
This story was brought to Nouzie by RSS. The original post can be found on https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/new-brunswick-fiscal-update-budget-deficit-9.6947089?cmp=rss
