Credibility on the (Bottom) Line: The Fiscal Accountability of Canada's Senior Governments, 2013

Abstract

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Canadian Provincial Government Budget Data, 1980/81 to 2013/14

“…First, simply collecting these data proved challenging. We enthusiastically add our voices to the complaint recently expressed by Busby and Robson (2014) over the lack of transparency and consistency in provincial government financial accounting. 5 Second, no data set is perfect.…”

Bending Canada's Healthcare Cost Curve: Watch Not What Governments Say, But What They Do

“…As a matter of plain arithmetic, growth in government healthcare budgets that consistently outruns the economy is ultimately not fiscally sustainable. For some observers (Busby and Robson 2014;Dodge and Dion 2011) the prospect of demographic forces and labour costs continuing to raise publicly funded healthcare's draw on national resources requires substantial reforms. For people more inclined to favour modest changes to what they see as a fundamentally sound system, the relentless pressure from health spending on other programs and taxes is a problem.…”

“…Using budgets and spending estimates as inputs rather than waiting for actual numbers would not create a problem if governments typically did what they say they will do -or, more precisely, if differences between what they say and what they do were small and random. As Busby and Robson (2014) have documented, however, government budgets are not unbiased guides to results. It is not just that governments tend to miss budget targets -no organization hits its budget targets exactly.…”

“…Revisions to Healthcare Spending and Total Spending Variances by Province/ Territory, 1998-2011Sources: CIHI NHEX reports, 1998-11; provincial/territorial budgets and public accounts, various years (seeBusby and Robson 2014…”

A Sales Tax for Alberta: Why and How

“…Kevin Taft told me he expects that this will eventually "turn into a downward spiral. The wealth flowing into the private sector will start to decline, [which will] reduce the upward pressure on public sector wages.Experts delving into the jurisdictional comparisons soon discover that data availability, accounting peculiarities, time periods chosen, and widely varied government budget structures make it difficult to create meaningful longitudinal comparisons(Busby and Robson 2014;. Panel A of table 4.5 offers snapshot-in-time comparisons among Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and, Québec for per capita spending based on 2019-20 and 2020-21 public accounts information.…”