The Sources of Data

All the data we present are obtained from provincial public accounts. Public account data differ from the revenue and expenditure amounts presented in budgets. Budgets describe a government’s forecasts of future revenue and expenditure at the start of a fiscal year and are influenced by political considerations and sometimes the need to be circumspect ahead of public sector wage negotiations. Public accounts present revenues and expenditures following the end of the fiscal year and following the application of accounting rules and standards.

Recent publications of provincial public accounts are available on government websites but frequently for only the past 5 to 10 years. For earlier years, we have relied on hard copies of public accounts available in research libraries, government legislative libraries and from digitalized copies available from the Wayback Machine .