Holt government prepares to table second budget
New Brunswick’s Liberal government will deliver its second budget on Tuesday, which Premier Susan Holt warned during her 2026 State of the Province Address would come with some difficult but necessary decisions.
The province’s deficit is projected to hit $1.33 billion to the end of March 2026. A year ago, in the Liberals first budget since taking office, the budget forecasted a deficit of $549 million.
Health was projected to be over budget by $432.5 million due to higher operating costs while social development was projected to be over budget by $127.1 million due to increased demands for services, according to New Brunswick’s 2025-26 third quarter report.
“New Brunswickers are tired of waiting for healthcare. We are making the investment to ensure you can access timely care, close to home,” Holt said in a post to social media regarding the upcoming budget.
“This budget is laser focused on the priorities that matter to New Brunswickers: accessible health care, a strong education system, making your life more affordable, while growing our economy and making the difficult decisions to keep it all sustainable. I’m looking forward to sharing it with you.”
Health care has been the number one priority for the Holt government, having recently signed several agreements to strengthen the province’s primary care resources, collaborative care clinics, and to tackle reducing the list of New Brunswickers that are without primary care providers.
However, the Holt government fell short of its 2025 goal to increase the percentage of people with a doctor or nurse practitioner to 81 percent. Instead, the number was just 72.5 percent, according to statistics presented at the 2026 Address. This percentage has been steadily plummeting for the past seven years.
“We’re not going to hide from the truth of how things are going in New Brunswick and we’re not going to make excuses for what the numbers tell us. We’re going to use these measures to motivate ourselves and focus our efforts more,” said Holt in her 2026 Address.
Finance and Treasury Board Minister René Legacy said in the third-quarter financial results that this deficit is not the financial situation the province wanted to be in, but that “we have an opportunity to make some strategic investments now, while we have some fiscal space.”
“While these numbers reflect significant fiscal challenges, they also underscore the importance of making thoughtful, informed decisions as we prepare for the next budget,” said Legacy.
The 2026-27 budget is expected to be announced at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday.
