Province confirms $1.3 billion deficit for last year

Province confirms $1.3 billion deficit for last year

Financial statements confirm large fiscal shortfall in 2025-26

The New Brunswick government has confirmed the $1.3 billion deficit it was projecting for last year.

Audited financial statements for 2025-26 released Friday show the shortfall landed almost precisely where it was projected to in the third quarter of the fiscal year.

The figure was actually $25 million lower than that projection.

Finance Minister René Legacy initially forecast a $549 million deficit for last year.

But by February 2026 that projection had ballooned to $1.3 billion.

The fiscal year ends March 31 but traditionally it takes the province until September to come up with a final accounting, which is audited by the auditor-general.

N.B. deficit jumps to almost $1.7 billion

Legacy repeated his argument Friday that the Liberals are making up for years of underspending by the previous Progressive Conservative government — but that can’t continue forever.

“There’s a window of opportunity for us here to right-size government, to right-size our services to what we feel is comfortable for New Brunswickers,” he told reporters.

“But there’s a certain point where we have to transform to make sure that deficit gets back in line to keep our ratios where they’re supposed to be.”

Legacy’s projection for this fiscal year has already jumped from almost $1.4 billion when he delivered his budget in March to close to $1.7 billion.

Jacques Poitras has been CBC's provincial affairs reporter in New Brunswick since 2000. He grew up in Moncton and covered Parliament in Ottawa for the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal. He has reported on every New Brunswick election since 1995 and won awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association, the National Newspaper Awards and Amnesty International. He is also the author of five non-fiction books about New Brunswick politics and history.