Roger Melanson cuts deficit forecast by $6M

New Brunswick's projected deficit for 2015-16 has been cutby $6.2 million, according to the province's finance minister..

Finance Minister Roger Melanson released his first quarter fiscal update onWednesday, putting the projected deficit at $470.6 milllion.

In the 2015-16 budget unveiled in March, Melanson put the projected deficit at $476.8 million. The deficit is now pegged to come in at$470.6 million.

The projected deficit includes the province's $150-million contingency fund.

Melanson said the improved outlook is due to $4.2 million inhigher revenues between April and June, along with expenses that were $2 million lower than anticipated over the three-month period.

The update shows the province's return on investment was $12.6 million lower than expected due to unanticipated outages at the Point LepreauNuclear Generating Station.

Personal income tax revenue was $5 million lower than projected due to weaker job growth than was anticipated.

The provincial governmenttook in $10 million more than expected in property taxes due tax base improvements in the previous year.

Spending by the Department ofPublic Safety was $5.3 million over budget, due to higherexpenses for disaster assistance for storms and floods in 2014. Those expenses are partially offset by recovering disaster assistance funding from the federal government.

The Tourism, Heritage and Culture department was $2.4 million over budget for the quarter due to completing an archaeological impact assessment for the proposed Sisson Mine project near Stanley.

In the economic outlook released as part of the update, the finance department is now projecting the gross domestic product for New Brunswick will grow by 1.5 per cent in 2015, which is 0.3 percentage points lower than the 1.8 per cent growth forecast in the budget.

Employment is down 0.9 per cent compared to the same time last year, with a slowdown in the construction sector driving employment down 7.2 per cent in the goods sector.

Melanson also set fixed reporting dates for fiscal updates, committing to deliver an update for the second quarter on or before Nov. 15. The third quarter update is to be delivered on or before Feb. 15.