Question Period Note: Public Accounts of Canada 2025

The Public Accounts of Canada for fiscal year 2024-2025 were tabled in Parliament by the President of the Treasury Board on November 7, 2025.

• For the twenty-seventh consecutive year, the Auditor General of Canada issued an unmodified audit opinion, indicating that the government’s consolidated financial statements were credible, fairly presented and timely.
• The Public Accounts were tabled well ahead of its legislated deadline of December 31.
• Federal spending reported in Public Accounts totaled approximately $547.3 billion.
• 66% of this amount went directly to Canadians for elderly benefits, EI benefits, children’s benefits, and health and social transfers to the provinces and Indigenous Peoples.
• During the year, expenditures for professional and special services totaled $23.1 billion.
• These services supported a range of priorities including building ships for the Royal Canadian Navy, training Air Force pilots and aircrew and providing health services for refugees.
• Professional and special services spending represented less than 5% of government expenditures in 2025.

Public Accounts
The Public Accounts of Canada is the Annual Report of the Government of Canada for the fiscal year ending March 31.

The production and finalization of the Public Accounts of Canada is a joint responsibility between the Receiver General for Canada, the Department of Finance Canada, and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, which includes the Office of the Comptroller General.

The Financial Administration Act (FAA) section 64 requires the President of the Treasury Board to table the Public Accounts by December 31 or, if the House of Commons is not then sitting, within 15 sitting days thereafter.

The Public Accounts must be signed by the Secretary of the Treasury Board, the Comptroller General of Canada, the Deputy Receiver General for Canada and the Deputy Minister of Finance.

The Public Accounts include the government’s audited consolidated financial statements and other detailed financial information.
o Volume I includes the audited consolidated financial statements of the government; the audit opinion of the Auditor General; a financial statements discussion and analysis; and details on certain financial statement components.
o Volume II includes financial operations of the departments, including the reconciliations of authorities granted and spent.
o Volume III includes other supplementary information such as losses, claims against the Crown, ex gratia payments and Ministers’ Office expenditures.

The form and content of the documents are a joint responsibility of the President of the Treasury Board and the Minister of Finance (FAA section 64(2)).

Public Accounts 2025
The 2024–2025 Public Accounts were tabled in Parliament on November 7, 2025 well in advance of this legislated tabling deadline.

The Auditor General also released the annual Commentary on the 2024–2025 Financial Audits, which included the Auditor General’s observations on significant findings identified as part of the audit of the Government of Canada’s consolidated financial statements.

The OAG noted progress in areas they reported on in previous commentaries which included the Public Accounts of Canada being tabled earlier and improvements in the government’s process for accounting for asset retirement obligations.

This year, the government also took steps to make improvements on the observations made last year on the preparation of the consolidated financial statements, which included opportunities to improve the Comptroller General’s financial close processes.

Recommendations
Opportunities to improve the process to identify, assess and respond to key risks and improvements in the consistency in accounting treatment across departments and agencies

Actions taken by the Office of the Comptroller noted by the Office of the Auditor General
The Office of the Comptroller General implemented the following:
• CFO sign-off requiring all departmental and agency CFOs to certify compliance with several key areas of the policy relating to financial reporting, including the requirement for CFOs to communicate significant departmental transactions to the Comptroller General.
• Mandatory training delivered to all departmental and agency CFOs by the Office of the Comptroller General to strengthen the Comptroller General’s oversight role and collaboration with departments and agencies. The training covered key issues and risks in the government’s accrual-based reporting.
• The Office of the Comptroller General strengthened controls for identifying adjustments to the Statement of Cash Flow at the departmental and agency levels and added requirements for departments and agencies to report adjustments to the Office of the Comptroller General.
Revisions to several important committees were made to strengthen the oversight of financial methodologies, introduce ADM-level decision-making, and clarify roles.
The government continues to seek opportunities to enhance the usefulness, quality, and presentation of the Public Accounts in future years.

Deficit: An annual operating deficit arises when total expenses of the Government exceed total revenues. The Public Accounts reported an annual operating deficit of $36.3 billion in 2025 compared to $61.9 billion in 2024.
• Revenues were up $51.4 billion, or 11.2%, from the prior year to $511.0 billion due to an increase in personal and corporate income tax, and other revenues.
• Total expenses were also up $25.9 billion, or 5.0%, from the prior year to $547.3 billion primarily due to more transfer payments made to persons and other levels of government.
• More information on the Government of Canada’s financial results can be found in the Annual Financial Report of the Government of Canada—Fiscal Year 2024–2025, available on the Department of Finance Canada’s website.

Professional and Special Services: Contracted services have always been an important part of how the government delivers programs and services to Canadians. For example, professional services might be needed to acquire special expertise, to meet unexpected fluctuations in workload, or complement the work of the professional public service.
• Compared to the previous year, professional and special services expenditures in 2025 increased from $20.8 billion to $23.1 billion, an increase of approximately $2.3 billion.
• The increase in Professional Services expenditures compared to last year is largely attributable to increases in engineering and architectural services for National Defence, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the Canadian Space Agency, health and welfare services, and other services for specialized training services.

Timeliness of the tabling of the Public Accounts
Following recommendations brought forward in the 20th Report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (entitled Report 20 – Public Accounts of Canada 2021), the government committed to have the Public Accounts ready for tabling on or before October 15. It would be
formalized in the Public Accounts Production Master Plan (Master Plan) which is managed by the Receiver General for Canada..

On September 13, 2024, the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer released a report on the timely financial reporting by the Government of Canada, with an emphasis on the tabling of the Public Accounts of Canada earlier (Timely Financial Reporting: A Path Forward for the Public Accounts of Canada). It included four recommendations with the goal of tabling the Public Accounts by September 30 following the end of the fiscal year.

On November 14, 2025, the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer released another report entitled Budget 2025: Issues for Parliamentarians. It again discussed the timeliness of the tabling of the Public Accounts and continued to recommend that the Government advance its deadline for tabling by no later than September 30.

None