Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697720867025.pdf (Canada)
Distribution of Federal Revenues and Expenditures by Province Publication No.

2017-01-E 24 May 2018 Revised 17 December 2018 Sirina Kerim-Dikeni Economics, Resources and International Affairs Division Parliamentary Information and Research Service Papers in the Library of Parliament’s In Brief series are short briefings on current issues.

At times, they may serve as overviews, referring readers to more substantive sources published on the same topic.
They are prepared by the Parliamentary Information and Research Service, which carries out research for and provides information and analysis to parliamentarians and Senate and House of Commons committees and parliamentary associations in an objective, impartial manner.

© Library of Parliament, Ottawa, Canada, 2019 Distribution of Federal Revenues and Expenditures by Province (In Brief) Publication No.

2017-01-E Ce document est également publié en français.
CONTENTS 1 2 3 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 1 OVERVIEW OF FEDERAL REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES............................. 1 FEDERAL GOVERNMENT REVENUES .................................................................. 3 3.1 Overview ................................................................................................................ 3 3.2 Federal Revenues by Province and by Type ......................................................... 3 4 FEDERAL GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES .......................................................... 4 4.1 Federal Program Expenditures by Province .......................................................... 5 4.1.1 Net Expenditures on Goods and Services ...................................................... 5 4.1.2 Federal Transfers to Persons .......................................................................... 6 4.1.3 Federal Transfers to Provinces ....................................................................... 7 4.2 Federal Interest Payments on the National Debt ................................................... 8 4.3 Other Expenditures ................................................................................................ 8 5 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 9 LIBRARY OF PARLIAMENT i PUBLICATION NO.
2017-01-E DISTRIBUTION OF FEDERAL REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES BY PROVINCE 1 INTRODUCTION The federal government collects revenues from the residents of all Canadian provinces.

It also incurs expenditures and implements programs that are widely available to all Canadians, regardless of their province of residence.

The distribution of federal revenues and expenditures across Canada is often considered in terms of net expenditures.
If the federal government collects more revenues than it incurs expenditures in a given province, the province in question is considered as a net contributor.

Conversely, if the federal government spends more than it collects in a given province, that province is considered a net recipient.
Individual parts of the country – be they cities, regions or provinces – are necessarily in one or the other of these situations according to their level of economic prosperity, their wealth in terms of natural resources or various strategic considerations.

This publication uses the most recent data available to provide an overview of the distribution of federal revenues and expenditures in Canada’s provinces.
2 OVERVIEW OF FEDERAL REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES In 2017, the federal government collected an average of $8,376 in revenues and incurred an average of $8,408 in expenditures per Canadian (see Figure 1).

When the federal government records a deficit, per capita expenditures are typically higher than per capita revenues, as was the case from 2010 to 2013, and again in 2016 and 2017.

The situation is generally reversed when the federal government records a surplus, as occurred in 2014 and 2015.
According to the Public Accounts of Canada 2018, the federal government had a budgetary deficit of $19.0 billion for the fiscal year that ended in March 2018,1 unchanged from 2017.

This compares to a deficit of $1.0 billion in 2015–2016 and a small budget surplus of $1.9 billion in 2014–2015.

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2017-01-E DISTRIBUTION OF FEDERAL REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES BY PROVINCE Figure 1 – Federal Revenues and Expenditures, 2010–2017 (in dollars per capita) 8,500 8,000 7,500 7,000 6,500 6,000 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Total revenues Total expenditures Sources: Figure prepared by the author using data obtained from Statistics Canada, “Table 36-10-0450-01: Revenue, expenditure and budgetary balance – General governments, provincial and territorial economic accounts (x 1,000,000)”; and “Table 17-10-0005-01: Population estimates on July 1st, by age and sex,” accessed 17 December 2018.
Figure 2 provides an overview of per capita federal revenues and expenditures in each province in 2017.

In that year, federal revenues per capita exceeded expenditures in only four provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario.

The difference was greatest in Alberta, where strong economic growth in 2017 raised the amount of revenues collected by the federal government to nearly twice the level of federal expenditures in the province.

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2017-01-E DISTRIBUTION OF FEDERAL REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES BY PROVINCE Figure 2 – Federal Revenues and Expenditures by Province, 2017 (in dollars per capita) 15,000 12,000 9,000 6,000 3,000 0 Revenues Expenditures Sources: Figure prepared by the author using data obtained from Statistics Canada, “Table 36-10-0450-01: Revenue, expenditure and budgetary balance – General governments, provincial and territorial economic accounts (x 1,000,000)”; and “Table 17-10-0005-01: Population estimates on July 1st, by age and sex,” accessed 17 December 2018.
3 FEDERAL GOVERNMENT REVENUES 3.1 OVERVIEW The federal government has several revenue streams, including personal income tax, the goods and services tax (GST), corporate income tax and employee contributions to social insurance plans (payroll taxes), such as Employment Insurance and the Canada Pension Plan.

3.2 FEDERAL REVENUES BY PROVINCE AND BY TYPE Figure 3 shows federal revenues collected by province and by type.
In 2017, federal revenues per capita were higher than the national average in only four provinces: Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador.

The federal government collects more in personal income tax in some provinces primarily because income levels there are higher.2 Since federal tax rates do not vary from one province to the next, the federal government generally collects more revenues in provinces where economic conditions are more favourable.
The same holds true for most of its revenue sources.

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2017-01-E DISTRIBUTION OF FEDERAL REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES BY PROVINCE Figure 3 – Federal Revenues by Province and by Type, 2017 (in dollars per capita) 12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 0 Direct personal income tax Direct corporate income tax Contributions to social insurance plans Goods and Services Tax (GST) Other revenues Sources: Figure prepared by the author using data obtained from Statistics Canada, “Table 36-10-0450-01: Revenue, expenditure and budgetary balance – General governments, provincial and territorial economic accounts (x 1,000,000)”; and “Table 17-10-0005-01: Population estimates on July 1st by age and sex,” accessed 17 December 2018.
4 FEDERAL GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES Federal government expenditures can be divided into three broad categories: program spending, debt servicing costs and other expenditures.

Program spending in turn consists of three main types of expenditure: net expenditures on goods and services, transfers to persons and transfers to provincial governments.

Figure 4 illustrates federal program spending per capita for each type of expenditure plus the cost of servicing the federal government’s debt.
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2017-01-E DISTRIBUTION OF FEDERAL REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES BY PROVINCE Figure 4 – Federal Expenditures by Type, 2009–2017 (in dollars per capita) 3,000 2,500 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Net expenditures on goods and services Transfers to governments Transfers to persons Debt-servicing costs Sources: “Figure prepared by the author using data obtained from Statistics Canada, Table 36-10-0450-01: Revenue, expenditure and budgetary balance – General governments, provincial and territorial economic accounts (x 1,000,000)”; and “Table 17-10-0005-01: Population estimates on July 1st, by age and sex,” accessed 17 December 2018.
4.1 FEDERAL PROGRAM EXPENDITURES BY PROVINCE 4.1.1 NET EXPENDITURES ON GOODS AND SERVICES The first type of program expenditure covers basic government activities – the salaries of public servants, the day-to-day operation of government departments, and military installations and operations.

It also includes the purchase of supplies and materials (see Figure 5).

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2017-01-E DISTRIBUTION OF FEDERAL REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES BY PROVINCE Figure 5 – Net Federal Expenditures on Goods and Services by Province, 2017 (in dollars per capita) 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 Sources: Figure prepared by the author using data obtained from Statistics Canada, “Table 36-10-0450-01: Revenue, expenditure and budgetary balance – General governments, provincial and territorial economic accounts (x 1,000,000)”; and “Table 17-10-0005-01: Population estimates on July 1st, by age and sex,” accessed 17 December 2018.
On a per capita basis, net federal government spending on goods and services is highest in the Atlantic provinces, particularly in Nova Scotia.

At the other end of the spectrum, per capita federal spending on goods and services in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Quebec was markedly lower than in the rest of the country in 2017.
It is important to note that two main considerations factor into the distribution of expenditures of this type: the logical location of certain government activities and the federal government’s desire to have an active presence throughout the country.

The clearest example of the first of these considerations is the location of a substantial portion of the federal public service in the National Capital Region.
Indeed, this category of federal expenditure is the only one in which Ontario exceeds the national average.

Similarly, Halifax – with its large, natural, ice-free harbour – is a logical choice for the location of the Atlantic naval base.

4.1.2 FEDERAL TRANSFERS TO PERSONS The second type of program expenditure, federal transfers to persons, comprises payments under federal programs, such as Employment Insurance, the Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security (see Figure 6).
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2017-01-E DISTRIBUTION OF FEDERAL REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES BY PROVINCE The amounts paid are closely tied to the socio-economic conditions in the various provinces.

As a result, provinces with relatively low-income levels and relatively high unemployment rates tend to receive larger per capita shares of federal transfers to persons.

A similar effect can be seen in provinces with larger populations of senior citizens or children, for example.
Figure 6 – Federal Transfers to Persons by Province, 2017 (in dollars per capita) 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 Sources: Figure prepared by the author using data obtained from Statistics Canada, “Table 36-10-0450-01: Revenue, expenditure and budgetary balance – General governments, provincial and territorial economic accounts (x 1,000,000)”; and “Table 17-10-0005-01: Population estimates on July 1st, by age and sex,” accessed 17 December 2018.
Federal transfers to persons are essentially the same across Canada, except in the case of Employment Insurance, whose eligibility requirements take regional considerations into account.

British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario were the only provinces where transfers to persons were below the national average in 2017; in contrast, the highest amount per capita went to Newfoundland and Labrador.
4.1.3 FEDERAL TRANSFERS TO PROVINCES The third type of program expenditure consists of transfers to provincial governments, in particular Equalization payments and payments through the Canada Health Transfer and the Canada Social Transfer.

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2017-01-E DISTRIBUTION OF FEDERAL REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES BY PROVINCE As can be seen in Figure 7, federal transfers to provinces vary widely from one province to the next, primarily because only certain provinces qualify for Equalization payments (in 2017, six provinces received such payments).3 On a per capita basis, Prince Edward Island obtained the most in federal transfers in 2017, mainly because of the amount of Equalization it received,4 whereas British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario stood at the opposite end of the spectrum.
Figure 7 – Federal Transfers to Provinces, 2017 (in dollars per capita) 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 Sources: Figure prepared by the author using data obtained from Statistics Canada, “Table 36-10-0450-01: Revenue, expenditure and budgetary balance – General governments, provincial and territorial economic accounts (x 1,000,000)”; and “Table 17-10-0005-01: Population estimates on July 1st, by age and sex,” accessed 17 December 2018.
4.2 FEDERAL INTEREST PAYMENTS ON THE NATIONAL DEBT Debt servicing costs, i.e., federal interest payments on the national debt, make up the second major category of federal expenditures.

The national debt and the interest payments on that debt are shouldered equally across the country.5 Hence, the per capita cost of servicing the national public debt ($581 in 2017) is identical in each province.
4.3 OTHER EXPENDITURES The final category of expenditure, “Other,” accounts for less than 5% of total federal government expenditures; these expenditures include business subsidies, transfers to non-residents and certain payments to local governments.6 LIBRARY OF PARLIAMENT 8 PUBLICATION NO.
2017-01-E DISTRIBUTION OF FEDERAL REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES BY PROVINCE 5 CONCLUSION There is a clear redistributive effect to net federal expenditures in Canada: the federal government receives more tax revenues in certain provinces and spends more in others.

In many cases, the differences in net federal expenditures from one province to the next do not stem from a decision to favour certain provinces over others.
Rather, they are largely a reflection of federal policies to redistribute wealth from the more affluent to the less affluent.

In fact, except for the Employment Insurance program, place of residence has no bearing on the amount of federal tax individual Canadians pay or the amount of federal support they receive.

Moreover, the provinces themselves are not uniformly prosperous or poor: degrees of prosperity vary regionally within individual provinces.
Thus, a similar analysis of specific regions of a given province could yield results entirely different from those obtained for the province as a whole.

It is also important to remember that a province’s economic situation can change drastically from one year to the next.

NOTES 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Receiver General for Canada, “Section 1 – Financial statements discussion and analysis,” in Public Accounts of Canada 2018: Volume I – Summary Report and Consolidated Financial Statements, 2018.
For more detailed information, see Statistics Canada, “Table 11-10-0190-01: Market income, government transfers, total income, income tax and after-tax income by economic family type,” accessed 17 December 2018.

Department of Finance Canada, Federal Support to Provinces and Territories.

Ibid., “Federal Support to Prince Edward Island.” For additional information, see Department of Finance Canada, Annual Financial Report of the Government of Canada: 2017–2018.
Statistics Canada, “Table 36-10-0450-01: Revenue, expenditure and budgetary balance – General governments, provincial and territorial economic accounts (x 1,000,000),” accessed 17 December 2018.

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