MLAs return to Fredericton Tuesday as a new session of the legislature begins.
Premier Susan Holt said the government’s top priority continues to be health care, focusing on ensuring New Brunswickers can access care close to home when they need it.
She said affordability will also be a focus.
The Green Party says they’ll focus on promoting policies to reduce the cost of living and improving the province’s economic self-sufficiency.
“For many New Brunswickers, the electricity they buy from NB Power is becoming unaffordable,” Green Leader David Coon said in a statement.
“The Holt government needs to follow through on their promised solar retrofit program so all New Brunswickers can access cheap energy from the sun and also create a low-income electricity support to help those who need it most.”
The Greens, much like the governing Liberals, plan to focus on health care.
Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton said New Brunswickers are struggling to pay for the care they need to stay healthy.
“Whether it’s the cost of long-term care in special care homes, transportation to medical appointments, or basic preventative health measures like the shingles vaccine, care is increasingly unaffordable,” Mitton said.
The Progressive Conservatives have a new leader, though Daniel Allain will be in the visitors gallery for now.
Holt said Monday she’s told Allain the government will not be an obstacle to the possibility of him being elected in a byelection.
The session will begin with the speech from the throne at 1 p.m.
The New Brunswick Green Party will have a new leader by the end of the year.
David Coon announced last month that he was stepping down from the role.
Applications from interested individuals can be submitted between August 4 and September 12.
The party’s Provincial Council has created a Leadership Contest Committee, chaired by David Wagner.
“We have established clear rules for the leadership contest to provide opportunities for prospective leaders to highlight their green values and their vision for New Brunswick”, Wagner says.
“These rules respect the prospective contestants and the needs of current and new Green Party members to identify and elect the leader who represents the diverse people of New Brunswick.”
New Brunswickers will learn who is running on September 28.
“This leadership race is an exciting opportunity for our party,” says Genevieve MacRae, the Green Party’s Executive Director. “We’re looking forward to welcoming contestants who are passionate about New Brunswick and ready to help grow our movement.”
Green Party members will vote, and the newly elected leader will be named on December 5.
Coon remains an MLA but will not run again in the next provincial election in 2028.
Information on the leadership contest, including the official rules, timeline, eligibility requirements and membership details, is available on the Green Party of New Brunswick website
David Coon announced on Thursday that after 14 years as the leader of the New Brunswick Green Party, he is stepping down.
“It has been such an honour to serve New Brunswickers as the leader of the Green Party,” said Coon. “I entered politics 14 years ago with the goal of bringing the concerns of everyday New Brunswickers to the floor of the Legislative Assembly and bringing a Green perspective to solving our province’s biggest issues.”
Coon says he will remain as leader until the party holds a leadership convention to choose his successor. He will also continue to serve the people of Fredericton Lincoln in his role as MLA until the next election.
“It’s time for a new leader before the next election. I want to make sure they have close to two years to prepare the Party for its next electoral breakthrough. With the Greens firmly woven into the body politic of our province, it’s time for a new leader who will grow our party’s electoral success to the point where more New Brunswickers will see our party as one that is capable of winning provincial elections,” Green added during his announcement in Fredericton today.
According to a news release, the Green Party has grown its popular vote by 200 per cent between the 2010 and 2024 elections, while Coon was the leader.
In 2014, he became the first elected Green in Canada outside of British Columbia. Under his leadership, two more Green MLAs, Megan Mitton and Kevin Arseneau, were elected in New Brunswick.
More than 50,000 New Brunswickers voted Green in each of the past two elections.
“David has given so much to this Party and to New Brunswick since 2012,” said Executive Director of the Green Party of New Brunswick, Genevieve MacRae. “Through his integrity, compassion and unwavering commitment to doing politics differently, he has helped build something truly special. We are deeply grateful for his leadership and for the strong foundation he has created for the future.”
An announcement from the New Brunswick Green Party about a leadership convention is expected in the coming weeks.
New Brunswick’s 2026-27 budget forecasted the $1.39 billion deficit as a result of a gap in revenue to expenses.
The projected expenses amount to $15.6 billion, while revenues are only projected to be $14.2 billion. This increases the province’s debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio.
Finance Minister René Legacy says the budget reflects a changing economic reality and uncertainty in the global economy. He says the challenge of making significant investments in what is important to New Brunswickers and bolstering the economy while working to reduce the province’s debt remains.
Concern surrounding province’s debt
Devin Drover, Atlantic Director and General Counsel of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, says New Brunswickers’ biggest concern should be that the government is redirecting tax dollars to service government debt.
Devin Drover, Atlantic Director and General Counsel of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (Image: Wilfred Fraser)
“Right now, about $1000 that a New Brunswicker pays in taxes just goes towards servicing existing government debt as a result of this budget; we’re seeing a lot of borrowing,” said Drover. “As a result of that, a lot of money is being siphoned away servicing government debt rather than money that can be used towards healthcare or other investments or money that could be used to return to taxpayers in the form of tax cuts.”
Legacy referenced during the tabling of the budget that the province’s net debt-to-GDP ratio remains one of the best in the country.
Drover says that if the government continues to increase spending, New Brunswickers will see increased expenses in the form of interest debt charges going up annually, which will result in a worse debt-to-GDP ratio.
“I think the province is certainly heading in the wrong direction when it comes to government debt,” said Drover.
Green Party Leader David Coon says the deficit is manageable in the short term.
Green Party Leader David Coon (Image: Wilfred Fraser)
“This deficit is not something anyone should light their hair on fire for. Given our fiscal situation, we can manage,” said Coon, “but when you look at the trajectory that they are proposing, that’s a concern.”
The province’s current net debt-to-GDP ratio sits at 27.9 percent following the revised 2025-26 budget that was initially tabled last year.
The projected net-to-GDP ratio for 2026-27 is 30.8 percent as a result of the continued deficit. The trajectory that Coon mentioned points to the years to follow, that would see 2027-28 and 2028-29 plans reaching net-to-GDP ratios of 33.6 percent and 36 percent, respectively.
“Right now, given our needs in healthcare, long-term care, social services and education, as we have been saying all along, this budget and New Brunswickers could not sustain significant cuts.”
This goal of debt reduction was initially expected to have assistance from spending cuts. Premier Susan Holt wanted all government departments to look for savings of 10 to 15 percent, but the budget tabled only sees a reduction in spending from three departments, and none of them reach close to 10 percent.
What happened to the cuts?
Legacy says they are choosing to invest in health care, education, social programs, and economic opportunities as opposed to making cuts. He says the province’s strategic position means they do not have to act rashly.
“We could have chosen to respond to the pressure by slashing programs and services across government to reduce the deficit faster, but New Brunswickers told us clearly that is not what they want, and we agree.”
Don Monahan, the Progressive Conservative finance critic, says there were not major difficult decisions made despite the talk around it.
“$1.39 billion is definitely a big number. They were talking about a lot of difficult decisions and what it’s going to mean for New Brunswickers, and at the end of the day there’s a lot of fear around that,” said Monahan. “In the end, there weren’t difficult decisions made.”
Monahan mentioned cuts identified by the Office of the New Brunswick Advocate when it released a review of the 2025-26 budget, in which a $47.1 million cut to child welfare services in the Department of Social Development was identified. There was also an identified budget redirection that resulted in librarian layoffs in 2025, according to Monahan.
Alex White, N.B. New Democratic Party leader, says the budget tabled is a backtrack from massive cuts that were proposed in the pre-budget consultation.
New Democratic Party Leader Alex White (Image: Wilfred Fraser)
“Now they’re coming out and saying it’ll be $100 million in cuts over three years. That’s not what we will get out of this … I am waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
The $100 million in cuts White referenced relates to the government’s announcement that they will be reducing the size of Part 1 of the civil service by 12 percent through attrition, or the gradual reduction of a workforce by voluntary departure.
As of Dec. 31, 2024, 11,801 employees made up Part 1 and represented 22 percent of GNB’s workforce. According to the math, the Holt government would be cutting roughly 1400 positions, which represent only a small fraction of the total GNB workforce: just above 2.5 percent.
White suspects there will be more changes announced in the next six months.
