Nova Scotia Finance Minister John Lohr is set to deliver the provincial budget today for the new fiscal year.
Residents can expect to see spending cuts, which will likely result in service cuts as well.
Some cuts have already started as the government announced last week it was closing three provincial museums as well as several tourist information centres.
Lohr asked all government departments in December to recommend ways to reach a 10 per cent rollback of programs and grants, though said it was unlikely all suggestions would be implemented.
Nova Scotia originally estimated a $700-million deficit, but that climbed to $1.3 billion in December.
In January, Premier Tim Houston said it had climbed to $1.4 billion.
N.S. opposition challenge PCs to sit for more than 8 days
As the budget is set to be delivered, Becky Druhan, Nova Scotia’s former justice minister who quit the governing Progressive Conservatives in the fall over differences with party leadership, hopes the session of the legislature that begins Monday is longer than the last one, which was only eight days.
Nova Scotia’s legislature doesn’t have a calendar, and its members sit at the whim of the party in power. Druhan, an Independent, said last year’s short session that wrapped in early October contributed to a “crisis of confidence” in the Tory government, which has a commanding majority.
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“Eight days is not enough to do what we need to do, to voice our opinions, to voice our community’s experiences, to debate the legislation and the issues that are important to Nova Scotians,” she said.
As elected representatives return to the legislature from their constituencies, the government has major issues to address, including health care and affordability. And the official Opposition NDP says that can only happen if members are given enough time to ask questions and debate with the governing party.
“At the end of the day, this government has become expert at not engaging with Nova Scotians around hard questions, including in the legislative arena,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said in an interview.
“It’s a travesty. It is an insult to Nova Scotians that this is how we move legislation through the House,” she said of the recent eight-day sitting.
It’s still unclear how many days politicians will sit in this new session. Premier Tim Houston’s office said in an emailed statement the House sits “as long as the opposition decides to debate the legislation.”
“Our government believes in a healthy democracy and when our MLAs are here in the city, they are ready to do the work,” spokesperson Catherine Klimek said in an email.
Chender also took aim at Houston’s government over its ballooning deficit and reliance on over-budget spending, which doesn’t involve a debate or vote in the legislature. Houston’s government has spent $6.7 billion outside the budget process since the 2020-21 fiscal year, including $1.6 billion in 2024-25.
“They’ve spent a billion dollars over budget every single year, it’s no surprise that we’re in a deficit now. And the fact that they have not been able to make good on any of those promises calls into question the choices they’ve been making,” she said, referring to the government’s commitments to improve access to health care and increase affordability.
The NDP and Liberals have both announced plans to introduce legislation to create a budget officer, a role that exists in some other provinces and at the federal level, in order to increase accountability around government spending.
—with files from The Canadian Press’ Lyndsay Armstrong
© 2026 The Canadian Press
