Here are some of the stories that made headlines in December 2025.
Deficit Hits $1 Billion, but Economy Performing Better than Expected; Government Releases Fiscal Update
Finance Minister Craig Pardy delivers his fiscal update (VOCM News)
The province’s new government has released its fall fiscal update, reporting a deficit now near $1 billion and net debt of almost $20 billion.
The Tories had long suspected the financial picture was worse than the former Liberal government was letting on, and it is, albeit somewhat by their own doing.
The deficit now stands at $948 million, up from the last estimate of $626 million, largely due to the removal of $400 million in revenue from the books in the recent tobacco settlement which has yet to be received.
You can read the full story here.
Newfoundland Power Crews Restoring Power, Just over 11,000 Customers Still Affected
Storm damage (via Newfoundland Power on Facebook)
Newfoundland Power crews working diligently to get power restored to customers following a vicious wind and snow storm that that knocked out power to approximately 22,000 customers.
Hardest hit was central Newfoundland, the Bonavista Peninsula and Twillingate.
Newfoundland Power spokesperson Glenda Power says while wind gusts of up to 140 km/h toppled lines and poles, heavy snowfall and blizzard conditions impeded crews from effecting repairs overnight.
You can read the full story here.
Newly Revealed Independent Review Committee has Four Months to Complete Work Before Findings are Put to Referendum
Helen Conway Ottenheimer, Premier Tony Wakeham and Lloyd Parrott (VOCM News)
The provincial government’s promised Independent Review Committee, revealed today, will examine whether the MOU being negotiated with Hydro Quebec on Upper Churchill expansion is in the best long-term interest of the people of this province – and the result will be brought to a referendum.
Premier Tony Wakeham told reporters the process being laid out will take longer than the April deadline set to finalize the MOU, but he’s “okay with that.”
“This is about getting the best deal, not getting the fastest deal, and I will not be rushed by any artificial deadline.”
You can read the full story here.
Province Setting Up Working Group to Address ‘Staffing and Systemic Pressures’ in Provincial Court System
Helen Conway Ottenheimer (VOCM News)
The provincial government is setting up a working group to address what it calls systemic issues in the provincial court system.
All civil and traffic hearings were adjourned and circuit courts in Baie Verte and Port aux Basques are being suspended due to what government calls staffing issues.
Justice Minister Helen Conway Ottenheimer announced that a working group has been formed consisting of Chief Judge Robin Fowler, another active or retired provincial court judge, two members of the Law Society, the Deputy Minister and other senior department officials.
You can read the full story here.
Military Family Feeling Duped After Daughter Denied Ability to Apply to MUN School of Medicine as NL Resident
A military family in Newfoundland and Labrador feels it was duped by Memorial University as it jumped through all the hoops only to find that, in the eyes of MUN and government, they were not from Newfoundland and Labrador.
But the former education minister says both Memorial and Government have it all wrong.
Rebecca McDonald, who wants to apply to the Faculty of Medicine as a local resident will, instead, have to compete to get one of the six seats allocated for applicants from the rest of Canada.
