New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt delivers her second State of the Province address in Fredericton on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, setting out her government’s priorities for the year ahead. She is expected to highlight new collaborative care clinics and a $270-million deal for doctors, while acknowledging an $834.7-million deficit and tariff risks.
A health-care record to sell
Holt, the first woman to serve as New Brunswick’s premier, has said her government spent much of 2025 building a foundation for health care and that patients will start seeing results from new investments in 2026.
The clearest marker is primary care. Holt kept a campaign promise to open 10 collaborative care clinics, and her government reached a new $270-million agreement that offers incentives for doctors to work in team-based clinics. In the address as delivered, Holt said access to care within five days is improving, but conceded there is much more to be done on attaching patients to primary care, promising more professionals and more clinics on top of the foundation laid in 2025.
Health Minister John Dornan joined Holt on stage, along with Finance and Treasury Board Minister René Legacy, to speak about progress on the accountability metrics announced at last year’s address, the challenges faced, and plans for the year ahead in their portfolios.
A deficit that grew by half
The fiscal backdrop is less comfortable. In its last update in November, the government revealed the deficit had increased to $834.7 million, a 52 per cent increase over the $549-million deficit projected in the March budget.
Holt addressed that context directly ahead of the upcoming budget, emphasizing that this is a time for difficult but necessary decisions. The province’s second budget under Holt is scheduled for March 17, when the legislature resumes, and the premier framed the speech as preparation for the choices that budget will contain rather than as a spending announcement.
Tariffs and the forestry exposure
Trade is the other pressure Holt cannot control from Fredericton. She has spoken about the challenges the government has faced, including the fact that New Brunswick’s forestry sector makes it one of the provinces most at risk from U.S. tariffs.
“It is no secret that we are facing major economic headwinds — especially in a tariff environment,” Holt said in the delivered address. “But there are also many growth opportunities at our fingertips, with our natural and human resources.”
Her pitch was that the province should make strategic investments that set it up for long-term economic success, leaning on its natural and human resources rather than waiting out the trade dispute.
One opportunity on the federal list
One test of that strategy sits in northern New Brunswick. The province was the first to sign on to a plan for joint federal and provincial environmental assessments, a step that could provide a boost for the proposed open-pit Sisson mine, which is on Ottawa’s list of “nation-building” projects that could be fast-tracked by the federal government.
For Holt, the address is therefore two speeches in one: a progress report on clinics and doctor deals that voters can measure at their next appointment, and a warning that the province’s finances and its largest export sector leave little room for error in the budget to come.
