Federal government spending by sector

Spending on social programs, including major transfer programs like EI and Old Age Security, will continue to be Ottawa's single biggest program expense, according to the government's Main Estimates for fiscal 2008.
The federal government is asking Parliamentary approval to spend $97.4-billion on social programs, an increase of 7.7 per cent or $7-billion from fiscal 2007.
Spending on social programs as a portion of all government spending continues to rise, as well. In fiscal 2008, 46.3 cents of every dollar Ottawa spends will be go to social programs, up from 45.5 cents of every dollar in the current fiscal year, which ends on March 31 and up from 44.8 cents in fiscal 2006.

The other big-ticket program areas for Ottawa in fiscal 2008, which runs from April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008 are:

• Public Debt charges: $34.7-billion in FY08, up $302-million or 0.9 per cent over FY07 and down $1.2-billion or 3.3 per cent from FY06. Public debt charges, as a portion of all program spending is steadily shrinking. In FY08, 16.5 cents of every dollar spent by Ottawa goes to service the debt, down from 19.3 cents in FY06.
• General Government Services: $24.3-billion in FY08, up $817-million or 3.5 per cent in FY07 and up $3.4-billion or 16.1 per cent from FY06. The government spends about 11.5 cents of every dollar of program spending on general government services.
• International, immigration and defence program spending: $23.9-billion in FY08, up $1.8-billion or 8.2 per cent from FY07 and up $3.5-billion or 17 per cent from FY06.
• Environment and resource-based program spending: $7.8-billion in FY08, up $1-billion or 14.7 per cent compared to FY07 and up $1.6-billion or  25.7 per cent compared to FY06. Spending on environment and natural resources programs account for less than four cents of every dollar spent by the federal government.