Fall budgets are a good idea, accounting changes aren’t

The Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press files

The federal government recently announced two major changes to the way it manages and presents its finances: a new capital budgeting framework and a shift to fall budgets, with fiscal updates moving to the spring. Moving budgets to the fall does make sense. But reclassifying spending through a new capital framework risks being more confusing than clarifying.

Ottawa’s recent habit of tabling budgets in March, April or not at all has left parliamentarians approving annual expenditures — “the main estimates” — that don’t line up with actual budget decisions. Because the main estimates must be tabled by March 1, MPs and senators often only get to vote on an incomplete picture of government spe