FREDERICTON -- An increase in the harmonized sales tax, highway tolls and cutting the number of teachers are just a few of the options under consideration by the New Brunswick government in an effort to erase a $600 million structural deficit.

On Friday, the government released a report comprised of suggestions for increasing revenue and cutting spending that have been gathered since January under the Strategic Program Review.

Victor Boudreau, the minister responsible for the review, said the province is facing serious financial challenges that must be addressed.

"Without action, our province faces mounting debt, our credit rating could be downgraded and our interest costs could go up," he told a news conference in Fredericton.

"This is the 8th year now of a deficit budget. We simply cannot continue down that road," he said.

Currently, the projected deficit for 2015-16 is $453 million.

Boudreau said more than 1,200 people attended public dialogue sessions and more than 9,000 ideas were submitted online, by email or mail.

The most lucrative possibility -- a two per cent increase in the HST -- would increase annual revenue by almost $300 million.

The combined federal/provincial tax is currently 13 per cent in New Brunswick, but 15 per cent in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. It's 14 per cent in Prince Edward Island.

The report says a new tax credit could be created to help mitigate the impact of an HST rate increase on low to middle income New Brunswickers.

Boudreau said imposing highway tolls could earn the province about $60 million a year with the use of eight toll facilities around the province.

Other options include closing many rural hospitals or converting them into community health centres, increasing the tobacco tax, outsourcing highway maintenance, and selling NB Liquor.

Boudreau said the government could also consider increasing the class size in schools while reducing the number of teachers.

However, he said not all the options included in the report will be implemented.

"There are close to a billion dollars worth of options all totalled in this report -- approximately 50 per cent on the expenditure side and 50 per cent on the revenue side if you include our first budget decisions. We need to basically get half of that," he said.

The Liberal government found $115 million in savings in its first budget, and will implement changes coming from the new report when the second budget is tabled in the spring.

Boudreau said New Brunswick residents still have time to review the options and express their views.

Green Leader David Coon said he is surprised that a number of items mentioned at many of the public meetings were not in the report.

He said those included the need to end financial handouts to industry, and to increase royalties on natural resources such as timber and potash.

Coon is calling on the government to have the report sent to the standing committee on fiscal policy to gather public input and report back to the legislature.