Over the past 20 years, Canadian federal, provincial, and territorial governments have spent a cumulative $119 billion more than they budgeted for, while taxing Canadians $143 billion more than their budgets intended, a new report shows.
Since the 2000-01 fiscal year, these governments have overshot both their expense and revenue targets, according to the report, published by the C.D. Howe Institute on Nov. 10. In particular, the governments entered the COVID-19 pandemic spending $3,100 more per Canadian and taxing $3,800 more per Canadian than they would have if they had met their past budget commitments.
