The fiscal year of the Government of Canada
runs from April 1 to March 31.[9]
However, the planning for the fiscal year begins much earlier with the
preparation of departmental expenditure plans, which are developed in
accordance with the government’s policy and budgetary priorities, and the pre‑budget
consultations by the Standing Committee on Finance.[10] The expenditure
plans are submitted to the House in their consolidated form as the “main
estimates”. At the same time, the Department of Finance is compiling the
information taken in during the pre‑budget consultations and preparing
its economic forecasts. The government’s efforts to reconcile its spending
obligations and revenue projections are reflected in the budget.
The budget outlines the government’s
fiscal, social and economic policies and priorities, while the estimates set
out, in detail, its projected expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year.
Typically, the budget is presented in the second half of February, although the
government is under no obligation to do so.[11]
Under normal circumstances, the main estimates are tabled in the House on or
before March 1 and submitted for concurrence by the House no later than
June 23.[12]
Should the government require funds while
waiting for, or in the absence of, income from taxes and other revenue sources,
it may borrow funds. Should there be a change in the government’s requirements
as set out in the main estimates, Parliament will be asked to approve one or
more “supplementary” estimates.
The tabling of the Public Accounts of
Canada and the Annual Report of the Auditor General, and their
review by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, completes the government’s
annual cycle of financial transactions.[13]
[9]Financial Administration Act, R.S. 1985, c. F‑11,
s. 2. Until 1906, the fiscal year ran from July 1 to June 30.
See Debates, May 10, 1906, col. 3065; Journals,
June 19, 1906, p. 400; Debates, July 13, 1906,
p. 7918.
[11] There is no requirement that the government present an annual
budget; however, this has been the practice followed since the mid‑1980s. In
an effort to introduce an element of certainty into the timing of the budget,
governments have tried, wherever possible, to present their budget in mid‑February,
before the main estimates are tabled (Wilson, M.H., The Canadian Budgetary
Process: Proposals for Improvement, Ottawa: Department of Finance,
May 1985, pp. 1‑8; Treasury Board of Canada, The Expenditure
Management System of the Government of Canada, Ottawa: Minister of Supply
and Services Canada, 1995, p. 4). See the section in this chapter entitled
“The Budget”.
[12] Standing Order 81(4) and (18). Standing Order 81 sets out a precise
House schedule for the consideration and disposal of the business of supply. If
the March 1 deadline is met, the House typically considers and disposes of
the main estimates for the then fiscal year before it adjourns for the summer.
If, because of an unscheduled adjournment or a prorogation or dissolution of
Parliament, the March 1 deadline is not met or the main estimates are not
concurred in by the end of June, the government proposes a new supply schedule
for the approval of the House, usually after negotiations with the parties in
opposition. See, for example, Journals, March 4, 1996,
pp. 34‑5, 39‑41; September 23, 1997, p. 14;
October 5, 2004, pp. 12‑4; April 4, 2006, pp. 13‑4.