The federal government tabled 2007-2008 Main Estimates this morning. The Estimates, as they’re known, are pages and pages and pages of tables that detail where Ottawa plans to spend its billions of dollars. The Estimates are produced as support documents for the legislation that will be tabled in the House of Commons that MPs will vote on giving the government the authority to actually spend money.
The estimates tabled today do not contain any new spending announcements or any other initiatives that have not been covered either in Budget 2006 or other previously announced documents such as the November Fiscal and Economic Update.
Through the 2007-2008 Estimates process, MPs are being asked to let the government spend $211.7-billion worth of tax dollars in the fiscal year beginning April 1, 2007 and ending on March 31, 2008. That represents an increase of $11.7-billion or six per cent over the previous year which ends on March 31, 2007. Last year, the House of Commons voted to allow the government to spend $199.7-billion worth of tax dollars in fiscal 2007.
That figure, though, doesn't represent all federal government spending – only the spending of tax dollars. The government also earns revenue from user fees, rents and other non-tax charges and usually spends most of it. So, afer adding up all the spending that is supported by tax and non-tax sources of revenue, the figure for total federal government spending for fiscal 2008 is estimated to be about $230-billion. That's an increase of $25.6-billion or 12.5 per cent compared to the previous year.
The single biggest group of expenses the government will incur this year will be benefits paid to the elderly. Ottawa will transfer about $32-billion to individuals in the form of Old Age Security Pensions, the Guaranteed Income Supplement and other programs for seniors. For fiscal 2008, the cost of elderly benefits will rise by about 5 per cent compared to fiscal 2007 and will have risen 11 per cent compared to fiscal 2006.
The cost to service the public debt in fiscal 2008 will be $34.7-billion, a slight increase of 0.9 per cent compared to last year, but more than $1-billion 3.3 per cent less than fiscal 2006.
Ottawa will transfer about $40-billion to other levels of government in the next fiscal year, an increase of about $2-billion or 5.2 per cent over the previous year. But CTV News calculates that the growth in transfers from Ottawa to other levels of government will have grown 23.4 per cent over the two year period ending March 31, 2008.
“Transfers to persons” – the money Ottawa sends out to individuals in the form of employment insurance, old age benefits and the new universal child care benefit – will total nearly $50-billion in fiscal 2008, an increase of 8.7 per cent compared to fiscal 2007 and an increase of 12.5 per cent over compared to two years ago.