The province faces a projected $779 million budget deficit for 2020.
new brunswick budget
Between 2014 and 2018, business investment in New Brunswick declined by 0.1 per cent annually.
New Brunswick has a “fiscal gap” equal to 0.6 per cent of the provincial economy.
The Higgs government plans to increase program spending by 4.3 per cent.
Last weeks provincial budget was a heap of bad news for New Brunswickers. First they learned that they will continue to be burdened by a government with shaky finances driven by annual deficits and mushrooming debt. Topping that off, Progressive Conservative Finance Minister Blaine Higgs proposed a series of highly damaging tax increases as a way out of New Brunswicks deep fiscal hole. Unfortunately, these tax hikes will cast a dark cloud over New Brunswicks economic prospects and likely bring little revenue in return.