Wow, It's Still Surplus!

The mainstream media is by no means eager to mention that, but, believe it or not, Canada is about to end fiscal year 2008/09 with a small surplus:

For the first 11 months of the 2008–09 fiscal year, there was a budgetary surplus of $1.3 billion, down $11.3 billion from the $12.6-billion surplus reported in the same period of 2007–08. Budgetary revenues decreased by $6.0 billion, or 2.7 per cent, primarily reflecting lower corporate income tax and GST revenues, partially offset by growth in personal income tax and other revenues. Program expenses were up $7.4 billion, or 4.2 per cent, due to higher transfer payments, Crown corporation expenses and operating expenses of National Defence. Public debt charges were down $2.0 billion on a year-over-year basis, reflecting a lower average effective interest rate on the stock of interest-bearing debt.

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So we don't have the $3.8B surplus, originally budgeted for 2008/09, but at least we don't have the $1.1B deficit, predicted in the most recent budget. $1.3B surplus in 11 months - that more or less matches the projection outlined in the last fall's economic update. The latter predicted $0.8B surplus for 2008/09.

But then comes the fiscal 2009/10, which brings along lots of "stimulus" spending. Program expenses are projected to hit $229B this year and $236B in 2010/11. That's when we're going to have all those $30B deficits. The only hope is that the government (which can no longer count on the disgruntled Liberal voters, but has plenty of small-c Conservatives to win back) starts cutting corners here and there, to keep the deficits lower than predicted. A sharp cut in spending (or at the least - not letting program spending to grow beyond $230B until 2015 or so) would be great, but... We're 11 seats short :( And it looks like those 11 seats are going to cost us (and our children) some about $6B each, if not $7B. And billions more in interest charges :(

P.S. Special thanks to Kate McMillan for posting the link on Small Dead Animals.