Defining the Size of Government
Governments present their finances in different ways for different purposes. These differences present alternative pictures of the size of government. This is why it is frequently the case that the public accounts for a province consist of one or more thick volumes!
Wherever possible, we have striven to present budget data that represents amounts controlled by elected representatives. Thus, when possible, we have provided data describing revenues and expenditures that remove the budgets of schools, universities, colleges and health institutions (the SUCH sector) affected by the decisions of university and college presidents, school boards, and hospital administrators.
This effort means that our data is typically describing a narrower definition of provincial finances than is being reported by FON or by the Fiscal Reference Tables.
An example of this difference can be seen using data drawn from the public accounts of the province of British Columbia. In 2023/24, we report Total Revenue to have been $62,458 million. This is considerably less than what is reported by the Fiscal Reference Tables ($79,263 million), or FON ($75,069 million).1 The reason for these differences is in the definition of the government universe being described by each of these publications.
In this example, the value we report is the total revenue of British Columbia’s Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF). The public accounts define the CRF as measuring the “core operations of the province as represented by the operations of government ministries and legislative offices.” The amount reported by the Fiscal Reference Tables ($79,263 million) is reported elsewhere in the BC public accounts where it is described as the total revenue for a much wider definition of the BC government, one that includes Crown corporations and the budgets of the SUCH sector. The total revenues reported by Statistics Canada and by FON correspond to still different definitions of the breadth of government. Understanding these differences is important for anyone comparing data sources.
These differences are also important to understand when deciding which data source might be most appropriate for answering a research question. For example, for researchers whose interest in financial data stems from wanting to understand how politics may affect the budgetary decisions of politicians as opposed to hospital administrators or operators of government owned liquor stores, a narrow definition of what constitutes provincial revenues and expenditures might be desired.2 Our goal has been to provide data relevant for such a narrow definition of government budgets. On the other hand, someone interested in defining the impact on Canadians and the economy of government and quasi-government decisions might prefer a broader definition.
It is also less than the amount reported in Statistics Canada’s Revenue, Expenditure and Budgetary Balance – General Governments, Provincial and Territorial Accounts where data is presented on a calendar year basis. There, total revenue for BC is reported to have been $82,243 for calendar year 2022 and $83,333 million for calendar year 2023. ↩︎
One might be tempted to rely on the FON data for data on revenues and use our data to describe expenditures. A problem with doing so is that the two sides of the accounting balance, revenue and expenditure, would be relevant for different definitions of what constitutes the government. The difference between revenue and expenditure would not be a useful description of deficit and the sum of these “deficits” over time would not provide a useful measure of accumulated debt. ↩︎