Premier Susan Holt set to deliver her second State of the Province address

Premier Susan Holt is expected to lay out the priorities and challenges facing her government in the year ahead today as the premier delivers her second State of the Province address in Fredericton.

The first woman to serve as the province’s premier recently said her government put a lot of effort into building a foundation for health care in 2025 and patients will start seeing results from new investments in 2026.

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Holt has kept a campaign promise to open 10 collaborative care clinics and reached a new $270-million agreement that offers incentives for doctors to work in team-based-clinics.

The premier has also spoken about the challenges the government has faced, including the fact that New Brunswick’s forestry sector makes it one of the most at-risk provinces to U.S. tariffs.

During the last update in November, the government revealed the deficit had increased to $834.7 million, an 52 per cent increase over the $549-million deficit projected in the March budget.

New Brunswick was also the first province to sign on to a plan for joint federal and provincial environmental assessments.

This could provide a boost for a proposed open-pit mine in Sisson, N.B., that is on a list of “nation-building” projects that could be fast-tracked by the federal government.