March 24, 2014
Canada’s senior governments have regularly missed budget spending and revenue targets during the last decade, with spending overruns of $47 billion combined, according to a report released today by the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Credibility on the (Bottom) Line: The Fiscal Accountability of Canada’s Senior Governments, 2013,” authors Colin Busby and William B.P. Robson rank the performance of Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial governments for hitting budget targets and providing transparent financial reports.
“More accuracy in hitting budgeted amounts would have made today’s taxes and public debt lower,” Robson points out.