Target Practice Needed: Canada’s 2010 Fiscal Accountability Rankings

Government spending overruns and missed revenue targets remain a common occurrence in Canada. Countrywide, spending overruns by the federal, provincial and territorial governments over the past decade exceeded $70 billion, limiting debt reduction and tax relief in earlier years, and materially adding to current deficits. This fourth annual fiscal accountability ranking measures each jurisdiction’s 10-year fiscal record for bias (the average difference between budget projections and actual results) and accuracy (over-shoots and under-shoots of budget targets).