Federal Spending - Charts & Reports

2008: Federal Spending Still On The Rise

Ottawa - If the ’06 budget was disappointing, the second was worse. Mr. Flaherty loaded the 2007 budget with additional micro tax credits all the while ignoring calls for broad income tax cuts. When it came to programs he even managed to best Liberal spending levels.

When Paul Martin’s Liberals left office, total program spending stood at $175-billion. Yet, after only two years of Conservative rule Ottawa’s annual outlays were set to exceed the 200-billion-dollar mark. Under Mr. Flaherty, the size of the federal government has grown by an astounding 14.8%. By comparison, Mr. Martin’s two-year minority government grew the federal government by 14%. More...

2007: Finance Minister Delivers Liberal Spending Budget

Ottawa - Federal government spending on all programs increased from $175.2-billion to $189.0-billion in 2006/07, this represents the third largest increase in percentage terms at 7.9% and the second largest jump in dollars since the budget was balanced in 1997/98. Program spending is budgeted to jump another 5.7 per cent in the upcoming year fiscal 2007/08) to $199.6-billion. More...