New Brunswick deficit down according to second quarter projections

The New Brunswick deficit has decreased, according to Finance Minister Cathy Rogers, who delivered the second quarter fiscal update Tuesday.

Rogers says the province currently has a projected deficit of $231.6 million for 2016-2017, compared to a deficit of between $262.4 and $342.4 million, which was predicted in the August first quarter results report.

“Overall today’s results are good news for New Brunswickers. They show an improvement from the plan that we outlined in the 2016-2017 budget,” Rogers said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Overall <a href="http://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/news/news_release.2016.11.1104.html" target="_blank">today's results </a>are good news for New Brunswickers. They show an improvement from the plan that we outlined in the 2016-2017 budget," Rogers said.

That number was dependent on whether the contingency reserve was added to the total — a reserve of $80 million, of which the government previously said they used $20 million.

Rogers says the government doesn’t anticipate needing to draw from the reserve. The province topped-up the fund to $100 million — which factored into the current numbers, would bring the deficit total to $33.1 million.

READ MORE: Use of contingency fund in N.B. government accounting under fire

Opposition Finance Critic Bruce Fitch says the government is “putting a brave face on a dismal situation.”

“They’re still playing their ‘shell game’ with the contingency fund, trying to say, ‘well, it’s not as bad as it was because we’re using the contingency fund’, but the fact of the matter is they’ve raised every tax they can think of taking about $500 million out of the pockets of tax payers of New Brunswick,” Fitch said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "They're still playing their 'shell game' with the contingency fund, trying to say, 'well, it's not as bad as it was because we're using the contingency fund', but the fact of the matter is they've raised every tax they can think of taking about $500 million out of the pockets of tax payers of New Brunswick," Fitch said.

Rogers says expenses are up due to increased federal funding on Capital Projects, but Fitch says that’s adding to the net debt in amounts upwards of $14 billion.

A two per cent HST increase came into effect in July, which government staff say was reflected in budget projections, and the economy is performing where they predicted it would.

“This government is going to mitigate what the real effect of HST is, but the fact of the matter is they’re costing people more money,” Fitch said.

The province says they are currently still on target to balance to books by 2020-2021.  The government will also be holding nine public pre-budget consultation meetings across the province in the coming days and weeks.