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September 15, 2011

Total budget overruns for Canadian federal, provincial and territorial governments amounted to $82 billion over the past decade, revealing a continuing lack of accountability to voters about budget promises, according to a report released today by the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Impulse Spending: Canada’s 2011 Fiscal Accountability Rankings,” authors Colin Busby and William Robson compare what legislators vote for at budget time with what their governments actually spend in the ensuing fiscal year. They identify the governments with the best and worst records at keeping their budget promises.

The Pinocchio Index 

Colin Busby

Colin Busby currently serves as directeur des politiques et du développement at HEC Montréal.

William Robson

Bill Robson took office as CEO of the C.D. Howe Institute in July 2006, after serving as the Institute’s Senior Vice President since 2003 and Director of Research from 2000 to 2003. He has written more than 270 monographs, articles, chapters and books on such subjects as government budgets, pensions, healthcare financing, inflation and currency issues.