QUEBEC — Finance Minister Eric Girard has revised the province’s 2025-2026 deficit downward by $2.8 billion.
Presenting the June quarterly financial results Thursday, Girard said his original March 18, 2025 projection for the 2025-2026 deficit of $13.6 billion, which he already revised down to $9.9 billion in March 2026, will in fact be $7.2 billion.
Rounded off, that’s about $2.8 billion less of a deficit than March’s projection.
That number is after an obligatory payment to Quebec’s deficit-fighting Generations Fund.
Meeting reporters at the legislature, Girard attributed the improvement — which comes as Quebec enters the fall election — to higher than expected revenues from state controlled companies and taxes on consumer spending.
Revenues are up by $584 million. That’s a 3.2 per cent increase as opposed to a 2.8 per cent projected increase in the budget.
Quebec government spending is also lower than anticipated. The March 2026 budget projected a 4.3 per cent increase for the year. The real number is 2.9 per cent.
Quebec has also not had to make use of a $2 billion emergency fund in the budget in case the economy turned completely sour as a result of the American trade war.
“Our management of public finances is prudent and responsible,” Girard said. “Quebec’s financial situation improved in 2025-2026.”
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