ST. JOHN’S – The Newfoundland and Labrador government is expected to deliver its last budget under outgoing Liberal Premier Andrew Furey today.
As in the rest of Canada, the province is dealing with uncertainty from U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated threats of punishing tariffs, which could be especially hard on the fishing sector.
It is also struggling to recruit and retain doctors and nurses, and to provide health-care services to its people, many of whom live in small, rural communities far from the capital of St. John’s.
The province had the fourth-highest poverty rate and the highest rate of food insecurity among the provinces in 2022, according to recent reports from Statistics Canada and a University of Toronto research group.
Furey came to power in 2020 and won an election the following year, vowing to pull the province out of debt and right its financial course.
His government brought the deficit down from roughly $1.6 billion in the 2020-21 fiscal year to $433 million at the end of 2023-24. However, the province also finished that fiscal year with $17.7 billion in net debt.
The Liberals are set to pick a new leader in May to replace Furey, an orthopedic surgeon who announced in February that he was stepping down and returning to medicine.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 9, 2025.
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