From the article: "He blamed Paul Davis, the former Progressive Conservative premier, for not telling him the size of the deficit during the electoral battle."
=======

Ahh yes, the classic "We didn't know how bad the deficit was" line.  Used by basically every single new government that comes in at every level in this country (and probably most other countries).

Of course the reality is that the deficit WAS known.  In fact the final numbers for revenue weren't far off original estimates.

The thing I find interesting, and maybe someone in Newfoundland and Labrador can help out here, is how the 2015 budget (before the election) showed a revenue estimate of $5.7B, but in the 2015 fall fiscal update (after election) the new government claims the budget estimated $6.6B in revenue but actual revenue was "only" coming in at $5.7B, hence an "unexpectedly large" deficit.