Some question how the provincial government can claim to have a surplus when it has to borrow $1.7 billion to service the debt.
Newfoundland and Labrador is in the black for the first time in years, primarily because of higher revenue in income and business taxes and offshore royalties.
Finance Minister Siobhan Coady says you still have to manage the finances to the benefit of the people. For example, in 2013-14 the province had $2.1 billion in offshore revenues—about double what it currently receives. Still, the government of the day had to borrow $500 million.
Coady says they are making progress in reducing debt as they will borrow about a billion dollars less in interest costs this year than originally thought.