We all know we're about to sink in the red but, at the end of January at least, the federal government was still $500 million to the good.
The latest numbers from the federal Department of Finance show that, with just two months remaining in the government's fiscal year (it ends on March 31), Ottawa had a budget surplus of $0.5 billion, compared to a budget surplus of $9.6 billion for the first 10 months of fiscal 2008. Revenues were off by $3.3 billion of 1.7 per cent while program expenses were way up by $7.5 billion or 4.7 per cent. Public debt charges are down, though, by $1.7 billion on a year-over-year basis.
January itself was alright as well with a narrow surplus for the month of $37 million, compared to a year ago when the January surplus was $1.2 billion.