Budget

Budget information for the Government of New Brunswick.

2026-2027 Budget highlights

New Brunswickers told us what they needed. This budget delivers.

We are making the single largest investment in health care in the province’s history. That means more collaborative care clinics, more health care providers, and better access to care, close to home. It means building a health care system that is there for New Brunswickers when and where they need it.

This budget supports families with the cost of living, ensures kids have what they need to succeed in the classroom, and makes the difficult decisions required to keep those investments sustainable.

By focusing on what matters to New Brunswickers, this budget puts people first.

We are choosing to invest in:

"New Brunswickers told us what they needed, and this budget delivers. We are making the largest investment in health care our province has ever seen while helping families manage the cost of living and making the responsible decisions needed to sustain these investments for the future." Hon. René Legacy, Finance and Treasury Board Minister

 

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2026-2027 Budget

2026-2027 Capital Budget

A capital plan that recognizes the multi-year aspect of the projects that are currently underway, our capacity to address our infrastructure needs, and is fiscally responsible.

Go to the Capital budget website

Pre-budget consultation

In preparing for the 2026-2027 provincial budget, the government engaged with residents, stakeholders, and organizations through a comprehensive pre-budget consultation process. Our goal was to understand priorities, gather ideas, and explore potential approaches for managing public finances responsibly. We laid out specific options we were considering, both for finding new revenues or finding savings, and asked New Brunswickers to share their views and their own ideas. More than 7,300 people responded. We took that feedback seriously.

The information from these consultations was helpful as we prepared for the work to come, providing good feedback around the options we were considering. They emphasized the importance of making well-informed, thoughtful choices – not rash decisions.

And we saw their priorities clearly highlighted. We need to ensure that every single dollar spent as part of our budget is maximized.

Learn more

Investing in New Brunswick

Health care

Every New Brunswicker deserves timely access to care, close to home. We are making the investments to get there. 


In 2026-2027, we are investing:

  • Investing $710 million more in health care than in last year’s budget.
  • Investing $170.4 million as part of the Physician Services Agreement, which introduces new compensation models that reward doctors for patient attachment, timely access, and participation in team-based collaborative care practices.
  • Investing $5.4 million to support medical education in a number of fields, and to support international recruitment of medical graduates and trained nurses.
  • Investing $30 million to expand the collaborative care clinic model, allowing for the opening and expansion of 12 more clinics this year.
  • Investing $50 million to support the ongoing implementation of a clinical information system, a standardized system that is consistent throughout the province.
  • Investing $2.5 million to equip paramedics with thrombolytics, critical clot-busting medication that can significantly improve outcomes for those suffering from heart attack or stroke.
  • Investing $5 million to expand cancer screening programs across the province, including making at-home pap screening available to New Brunswickers.
  • Doubling the province’s adult live-in treatment capacity by investing $3.5 million in the 50-bed residential treatment facility on the Kingston Peninsula.
  • Investing $2.9 million to continue work on the three-year Alzheimer’s and dementia strategy, and to create dementia-friendly communities and ensure that care is accessible, respectful, and culturally appropriate.
  • Investing $10 million to improve home care affordability. This will involve a new financial assessment and updated income thresholds for home care subsidies.
  • Investing $4 million in the Nursing Home Without Walls program to continue expanding on new sites throughout the province.
  • Allocating $29 million under the current nursing home plan to ensure all previously committed long term care spaces are fully funded.
  • Investing $9.3 million to increase the wages of personal support workers working in adult residential facilities and home support.
  • A further $2.6 million is going to increase the hours of care in nursing homes to help meet the growing demand and improve access to appropriate care.
  • We will be releasing a seniors and long-term care strategy later this month.

Affordability and housing

New Brunswickers are feeling the pinch as the cost of living continues to rise. This budget helps take some weight off their shoulders. 


In 2026-2027, we are investing:

  • Investing $10.2 million in wrap-around services for supportive housing.
  • Investing $17 million in the Community Housing Retention and Expansion Program.
  • Investing an additional $5 million in the Energy Efficiency Fund. 
  • Maintaining the monthly residential electricity rebate providing $98.1 million in relief.  
  • Investing $4.4 million to index social assistance rates to inflation. 
  • $675,000 to support the gender-based violence sector.
  • For the first time, providing $1 million for the Indigenous Domestic Outreach Program and for gender-based violence programming in transition houses in First Nation communities.
  • Investments to support the implementation of Weaving Our Voices Together: New Brunswick’s Path to Safety for Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQIA+ People.

Education and children

Our education system is the foundation for a brighter future for our province. We are making sure it has the resources and opportunities needed for children and youth to succeed.


In 2026-2027, we are investing:

  • Investing an additional $7 million to deliver a school lunch program across the province. 
  • Investing $19.3 million for additional educational assistants in both the anglophone and francophone sectors.
  • Investing an additional $1.4 million to support the recruitment and retention of teachers, bus drivers, custodians, and educational assistants. 
  • Investing $5.8 million into additional academic support teachers, resource teachers, and guidance counsellors.

Economic opportunities

We are building an economy that can compete with anyone and win. New Brunswick has what the world needs, and this budget makes the investments to prove it.


In 2026-2027, we are investing:

  • $9.9 million to prepare for additional nuclear development at Point Lepreau. 
  • Investing $2 million in the Agriculture Growth Action Plan and $750,000 in the Local Food and Beverages Program to help accelerate GDP growth. 
  • $21 million to continue ONB’s Competitiveness and Growth Program to assist major export-oriented companies in New Brunswick.
  • Investing an additional $1 million to leverage federal funding to help small- and mid-sized companies to diversify, compete, and find new markets. 
  • Investing an additional $1 million in the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation and an additional $1 million in Research NB so that our partners can keep pushing forward with a strong research and development agenda. 
  • Investing $2 million to help us reach our goals in our new five-year tourism strategy. 
  • $2.8 million to help stabilize the arts and culture sector, and help boost the creative economy through new jobs, fostering innovation and delivering more access to the arts.

Stronger communities, stronger province

We are stronger when we work together. We are supporting and protecting our communities, and helping them thrive.


In 2026-2027, we are investing in:

  • Providing a total of $141.1 million to support local governments, including funding to invest in key areas such as infrastructure renewal. 
  • $4.2 million to facilitate foreign credential recognition for priority occupations in health care, skilled trades, engineering and education sectors. 
  • Investing $250,000 to support the implementation of pay transparency. 
  • $6.7 million to strengthen the wildfire preparedness and response efforts. This includes funding for the conversion of 74 seasonal forest ranger positions to year-round roles and enhancing the contract with Forest Protection Limited to include new aircraft for wildfire suppression.

New Brunswick’s future

Investing in New Brunswickers means making difficult decisions. We are not shying away from that responsibility. We are putting New Brunswickers first and will not leave people behind on our path to balanced budgets.


In 2026-2027, we:

  • Committed to reducing the size of Part I of the civil service by approximately 12 per cent over three years, leading to savings of up to $100 million. 
  • Continue to review underutilized assets, including government assets and schools with fewer than 100 students. 
  • The operation of provincially owned heritage properties with fewer than 5,000 visitors will be transferred to community partners or closed, in collaboration with our stakeholders. 
  • Discontinue provincial field veterinary services to hand off the service to the private sector, as well as provincial veterinary lab and foreign animal disease lab services, to be phased out gradually over three years. 
  • Introduce tolls on non-New Brunswick vehicles, with a toll booth near Aulac to be operational by 2028. 
  • Investing $1.2 million to establish a dedicated contraband tobacco enforcement team to go after the operations of organized crime. 
  • Investing $667,000 to crack down on the sale of illegal lobster. 
  • Improve collection of money already owed to the province, including within the student loan portfolio.

Previous budgets

Land acknowledgement

We respectfully acknowledge that New Brunswick is situated on the unceded and unsurrendered territories of the Wolastoqey, Mi'gmaw, and Peskotomuhkati peoples. We seek to repair and rebuild meaningful relationships with Indigenous peoples and honour these lands which hold the hopes of future generations.