For immediate release
April 22, 2013
Ottawa – The Honourable Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board, today unveiled a new searchable online database that, for the first time, provides easy access and analysis of all government spending. The tool gives Canadians a quick picture of how taxpayer dollars are spent and allows Parliamentarians to better analyse government expenditures.
The Expenditure Database fulfills a commitment made by the Government to Parliamentarians for a more accessible financial reporting system. The online portal was one of the recommendations to come out of a Report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates which looked to strengthen Parliamentary scrutiny of the Estimates process.
The database allows users to search for spending information in three categories: by Authorities and Expenditures, which compares the amount of funding that was authorized to what was actually spent, by Standard Object, which details itemized government spending, and by Program. By clicking on any value presented in the database, users can obtain government-wide totals and make comparisons of the data.
Expenditure data is currently available for all organizations that received voted appropriations during the 2009-10 to 2011-12 period. Over the next two years, the Government will work on expanding the information in the database and enhancing its functionality.
The Expenditure Database is the latest improvement made to the financial reporting system as part of the Government's October 2012 response to the seventh report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. This year's Reports on Plans and Priorities, released in March, included, for the first time three years of historical by spending by program as well as three years of forecast spending and trend analysis.
The Expenditure Database is available online.
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Matthew Conway
Press Secretary
Office of the President of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for FedNor
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