N.B., feds strike deal on sales tax compensation
CBC
The Holt government has reached a deal with Ottawa on compensation for tens of millions of dollars in lost sales tax revenue from the Christmas season in 2024.
The Trudeau government’s HST holiday meant it wasn’t collecting the provincial portion of the tax on behalf of five provinces that are part of the tax model, including New Brunswick.
In December 2024, Premier Susan Holt pegged the loss at $70 million and said her “bottom line” was that New Brunswickers had to “remain whole.”
But federal cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc said the same day that there would be “no direct compensation” and that Ottawa was looking to come to “an understanding” on the issue.
The federal government was required, under the HST agreement, to pay up and the Holt Liberals could have opted to go to court to enforce it, but did not.
Holt and LeBlanc confirmed at a joint news conference on Friday that Ottawa will provide $60 million toward bilingual digital health records in New Brunswick.
“The federal government made good on their word and we're pleased to have gotten $60 million returned to the people of New Brunswick,” Holt said.
“That's going to go a long way towards the work that we're doing to deliver New Brunswick the services they're looking for.”
LeBlanc said it was important to support New Brunswick “in this particular case … in terms of having to deliver quality health-care services in both official languages.”
Of the $60 million total, $20 million will be recorded on the books of the current 2025-26 fiscal year, which ends March 31.
The other $40 million appears in budget estimates tabled in the legislature for the 2026-27 fiscal year that begins April 1.
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