Parliament And Government Finance

Explores financial aspects of constitutional government, focusing on central banking, sovereign borrowing, taxation and public expenditure.

During the fiscal year from 1 April of the current year to 31 March the following year the federal government's liabilities can total in the hundreds of billions of dollars. A simple accounting error or slight mishap in a government program could result in the loss of several hundreds of millions of dollars. The tabling of the budget papers on budget day ends the budget development process. A cycle of financial management that extends over more than 20 months then begins. This document explains the public finance management cycle in detail.

Parliamentary scrutiny of the Government's finances needs to be improved. The purpose of scrutiny is to make the government's financial decisions transparent, to give those outside Parliament opportunity to comment, to have the opportunity to influence the Government's financial decisions and to hold the Government, departments and other public bodies to account. The complexity of the Government's financial system is a major problem. There are: departmental budgets determined in spending reviews; estimates; and resource accounts. Complicated reconciliations are needed to relate one to another. The Treasury has started an Alignment Project which should improve consistency and continuity between these three types of document. Parliament is not receiving the information required for effective scrutiny. Financial reporting to Parliament should: include the information that departmental managers use to monitor performance, rather than just financial control and audit information; enable an overall view of planned expenditure; highlight the information which is significant; relate the information to objectives and to what is achieved by spending the money; identify key risks; use graphs; be provided in good time; use plain English; and enable as assessment of the quality of financial management. The Committee makes specific proposals based on these principles. Select committees and the House should, together, engage with financial issues before the Government makes decisions. The House should take back the right to debate and vote on individual government programmes or items of expenditure, and more than three days a year (the current allotment) should be made available for this purpose.

"The politics of public money examines the extent to which the Canadian federal budgetary process is shifting from one based on a bilateral relationship between departmental spenders and central guardians to one based on a more complex, multilateral relationship involving a variety of players."--P. [i].

This reference book is primarily a procedural work which examines the many forms, customs, and practices which have been developed and established for the House of Commons since Confederation in 1867. It provides a distinctive Canadian perspective in describing procedure in the House up to the end of the first session of the 36th Parliament in Sept. 1999. The material is presented with full commentary on the historical circumstances which have shaped the current approach to parliamentary business. Key Speaker's rulings and statements are also documented and the considerable body of practice, interpretation, and precedents unique to the Canadian House of Commons is amply illustrated. Chapters of the book cover the following: parliamentary institutions; parliaments and ministries; privileges and immunities; the House and its Members; parliamentary procedure; the physical & administrative setting; the Speaker & other presiding officers; the parliamentary cycle; sittings of the House; the daily program; oral & written questions; the process of debate; rules of order & decorum; the curtailment of debate; special debates; the legislative process; delegated legislation; financial procedures; committees of the whole House; committees; private Members' business; public petitions; private bills practice; and the parliamentary record. Includes index.

Donald Savoie tackles government's increased spending and our inability to cut back existing programs. He argues that they are rooted in the regional nature of Canada and in the fear that unless we eat the best at the public banquet we will lose our shares of public largesse.