March 30, 2013 - No. 12

CPC(M-L)'s 43rd Anniversary



CPC(M-L)'s 43rd Anniversary

Looking at Federal Government Budget for 2013
- K.C. Adams
• Part One: Ideo-Political Considerations of the Federal Budget
• Part Two: Mystery of State -- The Hoax of Balancing the Budget
Your Tax Dollar: 2011-2012 Fiscal Year - Department of Finance
Summary of 2012 Budget - Department of Finance


CPC(M-L)'s 43rd Anniversary

March 31 marks the 43rd anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist). On this occasion, the Central Committee sends revolutionary greetings to all its members and supporters across the country and best wishes for the success of their work. The Party's 43rd anniversary is an excellent occasion to reflect on the work done to implement the resolutions of the Party's 8th Congress held in August 2008 and to participate in setting the agenda for the upcoming 9th Congress.

One year ago during CPC(M-L)'s 42nd anniversary celebration, the Party addressed the necessity to reassert the authority of communism and bring that authority into harmony with the modern conditions. Modern communism and CPC(M-L) fight for the new by putting the renewal of thought and action at the centre of their concerns. This means the enrichment of theory, the strengthening of the Party's organizations and the creation of new organizational forms of the working class for its defence, politics and democracy.

"Through actions with analysis, the building of groups of writers and disseminators, leading the class struggle on all fronts within the constantly changing conditions, Party comrades through their own efforts are deepening and broadening revolutionary theory and contributing to Contemporary Marxist-Leninist Thought. By tackling the world as it presents itself and analyzing the concrete conditions where Party members and supporters are involved in revolutionary work, the Party and all its organisms can respond effectively to the call of history and move the world forward to a break with the obsolete authority that is in contradiction with the conditions both in their own particular work and in society generally," CPC (M-L) pointed out.

"The Party upholds Lenin's thesis that without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement, which always emphasizes that without revolutionary practice revolutionary theory withers and dies as dogma. For communists, theory is the Goddess of Light that illuminates the path forward but first we must be on the revolutionary path and fighting to advance the class struggle. As we fight and advance our revolutionary practice, theory must advance as well to deal effectively with the conditions that constantly change objectively and subjectively through our own efforts in organizing and waging the class struggle.

"The world never slows down in its constant change, development and motion and neither should our brains in dealing with the call of history," the statement of the Central Committee pointed out. "Not a day goes by without another infamy against the working class including attacks even on the dignity of teachers, scientists, other professionals and public service workers, wrecking of manufacturing and austerity budgets that deprive the people of the social programs and public services they need to live in dignity and health," the Party wrote.

Concluding its analysis of the current conditions the Party said, "This is not an occasion to mourn the present situation and express frustration and desperation. It is an occasion to test our mettle as communists and workers. The contradictions within state monopoly capitalism are so intense the ruling oligarchy to save itself, its crisis-ridden system and its life of wealth and class privilege is attacking everyone except a small minority that holds economic and political power and influence. Using the power of the state and the immense wealth at their disposal, monopolies and their private interests are assaulting the vast majority of the people and their basic interests. They are politicizing their private interests and depoliticizing public interests creating a state of anarchy and violence worldwide. This exposes the weakness of state monopoly capitalism and those who hold great wealth and class privilege and their paid flunkies; they have no objective allies in any other sector of the population making them and their state extremely isolated and vulnerable in the face of a people determined to defend their rights and the general interests of society."

One year later, we increasingly see how the state of complete anarchy and violence the ruling elites have imposed leads them to attack not only the people and society itself but even one another and the state authority itself. Scandal has become the expression of the crisis in which they are mired along with empty calls for renewal. Their schemes for renewal are so totally devoid of substance their only fate is to become increasingly desperate and crazy such as in the Harper/Flaherty recent federal budget where they rename the bail-outs of the monopolies as "bail-ins." Taking a cue from the European Union's devastation of Greece and Cyprus, a bail-in regarding the big banks transforms deposits or savings into "investments" and savers or depositors to "investors" so that the people's savings for their retirement or other purposes can be legally stolen and replaced during a crisis with worthless bank stock equity.

The Central Committee of the Party this March analyzed developments of the concrete conditions at its 10th plenum held on an enlarged basis. To find one's bearings within the state of anarchy and violence that exists worldwide, the Plenum of the Central Committee underlines the necessity to put emphasis on the need for modern communism as enlightenment theory. It presupposes opposition to irrationalism, which is a system of belief or action that disregards or contradicts rational principles.

Today, irrationalism exists as a system of thought to oppose the demands of the working class for building new relations of production. Irrationalism exists in the form of a device that puts limitations on thought and action to impede the activation of the human factor/social consciousness so that the working class does not take its place at centre-stage of the historic necessity for change.

Irrationalism in the present conditions presupposes a "free man" outside the realm of necessity, outside of time and space, outside of history. Such a person is necessarily a disconnected, disempowered, ineffective, apolitical creature who can at most lament his or her condition and blame others for the state of world affairs. The anti-human factor/ anti-consciousness unleashed by the irrationalism that has gripped the entire society leads to a state of hopelessness, helplessness and humiliation due to its inability to grasp what is required of us at any time. In opposition, the thesis -- understanding requires the conscious participation of the individual in an act of finding out -- accepts no limitations on thought and action, which cannot be left to chance.

In this context, the plenum of the Central Committee reviewed the decision of the 8th Congress to strengthen the work of building the party itself. The Plenum made a positive appraisal of the Party's work to solve some of the problems the 8th Congress took up for solution but others require immediate attention. For instance, the Party plays a great deal of attention to ensure the working class can play its role as the leader of society and is not a politically impotent force. To achieve this aim, the organizations of the Party pay first rate attention to discerning where the main political emphasis should be put at any time so that the Party's education and organizing work are effective.

The accuracy of the Party's appraisal of the political situation along with the adoption of suitable tactical slogans are key to success at any time. But to achieve both accuracy and suitable slogans, it is necessary to pay attention to the Party's inner party life, to the building of the Party itself. As is well-known: without organization, there can be no effective resistance; without building the party organization where political leaders are trained, no work can become effective.

A strong communist basic organization, which is the instrument of leadership, empowerment and revolutionary action at its level, sets the agenda of work at its level consistent with the requirements of the day and checks up on its implementation. This is the decisive factor without which the success of any work is hit and miss. Without a basic organization setting the agenda of work and summing it up, the Party work becomes an exercise of anarchistic spontaneous interventions that are merely reactive and fraught with misadventure.

Without Party organising, actions are based on the irrational pragmatic belief that nothing succeeds like success and tactics are a process, popping up as one goes along. The March Plenum thus set the main work for the coming six-month period to pay attention to the quality of members by paying attention to the quality of the basic organizations. To be in good standing, a member must make sure her or his basic organization is in good standing. This means the basic organization must make sure that everyone can participate in setting an agenda of work and take the decisions that affect their lives and the revolutionary movement. Only then can members create the conditions they require to implement their own decisions and thus uphold their responsibility to ensure that the decisions are carried out and summed up. This smashes the meaningless repetition of phrases, which is a habit imposed by the ruling elites to render life in a most irrational manner.

In conclusion, the Enlarged Plenum of the Party's Central Committee took all necessary measures so that the resolution of the 8th Congress on Party-Building is given priority in the coming period. With the celebration on March 13 of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Party's precursor organization The Internationalists, the Party began an extensive review of all measures taken to consolidate inner-party life since the Party's founding in 1970 in general and 1985 in particular.

In 1985, the Party assessed that no force could continue to act in the old way and must begin the work of renewal. The aim of the review of the work to consolidate inner-party life is to educate the Party organizations at all levels. The review will be carried out as an extensive assessment of the Party's liabilities and assets to expose the defects in the work and turn liabilities into assets. The review should provide a guide to action to ensure the party organizations at all levels are constitutionally sound revolutionary instruments of the Party and the working class.

The Party will use the 43rd anniversary of its founding on March 31, the upcoming 45th anniversary of the reorganization of The Internationalists as a Marxist-Leninist youth and student organization in Montreal on May 7, 1968 and other occasions to carry out this review.

At all times, the problems of organization must be rendered ideologically and politically based on the Party's thinking and outlook. The Party's thinking and outlook exist in opposition to the bourgeois style of making behaviour, toeing the line and its opposite, refusing to toe the line, the issue. The bourgeois approach is based on the irrational anti-communist conception of the "free man" outside the realm of necessity, outside of time and space, outside of history. The Party opposes such nihilist conceptions. The Party plants its flag firmly on the terrain of the new and sets its course with confidence to provide the problems of building the new with solutions.

Let us celebrate the 43rd anniversary of the Party's founding by paying attention to the Party's inner-Party life!

Occupy the Space for Change!
Expand the Space for Communism!

Long Live CPC (M-L)!
Red Salute to the Work of Our Founder and Leader Hardial Bains!

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Looking at Federal Government Budget for 2013

Part One
Ideo-Political Considerations of the Federal Budget

Canadians are understandably concerned with the prospects for the country. At this stage in history, people are blocked from setting the aim, agenda and direction of the economy. The ruling elite expect the people to accept the dictate of the monopolies and the government for those features of modern democratic life that should belong to the people by virtue of being members of the polity.

A budget is an accounting tool of the economy. The expenditures and revenue of a nation, institution, collective or individual exist within a dialectical relationship. The ideo-political considerations of a budget both expenditures and revenue are set by those who control the nation, institution, collective or individual. The ideo-political considerations are the bedrock on which the aim of the nation, institution, collective or individual is fashioned and the expenditures and subsequent necessary revenue determined within the budget.

Modern Definition

A modern definition of a budget considers expenditures the leading aspect of the relationship with revenue that is always in change, development and motion. Balance between expenditures and revenue is only coincidental and fleeting within the struggle for production, scientific experimentation and class struggle. Expenditures are determined as those that meet the needs of the people, the reproduction of the socialized economy and the general interests of the society. The human factor/social consciousness and maximum political mobilization unleash the initiative of the members of a nation, institution or collective and from work generate the revenue to meet the demands of the expenditures.

Depriving the People of Their Rights and Claims
on the Economy and Society

The Harper Conservatives have declared themselves in word and deed a neo-liberal political government driven by a dominionist evangelical ideology. Fashioned from their ideo-political considerations, the aim of the Harper government is to turn over the entire human and natural resources of Canada to the private interests of the most powerful global monopolies.

The rights and claims of Canadians are in contradiction with the might and claims of the global monopolies. The Harperites seek to achieve their aim by depriving the people of their rights and claims on the economy and society, and to guarantee monopoly right and the claims of the monopolies within every pore of the economy and society.

The direction of the economy and its many problems and internal contradictions are established and maintained objectively through the development of capitalism and its state resulting today in the monopolies' ironclad private control of the main enterprises of the economy and state institutions such as the government. An important aspect of depriving the people of their rights and claims on society is to block them from having any control over the direction of the economy.

Ideological Control of the Economy and Society

The monopolies and their political representatives maintain ideological control of the economy by denying that the modern economy is a social relation of owners of monopoly capital and the actual producers of whom the largest and most important social class is the proletariat or working class. Deeply held prejudices interfere in the direct and immediate analysis of the relations among humans and with nature. Those prejudices, which arise from the ideo-political superstructure of monopoly capitalism, create a situation where the people find it difficult to analyze unfolding events and draw warranted conclusions about their significance. They fail to cognize the human relations in society, in particular the economy and its social relation between owners of monopoly capital and the actual producers. Instead of seeing life as it is, people are led to see what they think is there or merely repeat what they are told is there. This subverts the conscious participation of the people led by the working class in acts to analyze the economy and develop their own ideo-political considerations with their own independent thinking, aim, agenda and direction for the economy.

A budget developed by a people who activate the human factor/social consciousness, who reject false interpretations which perpetrate the anti-human factor/anti-social consciousness, reflects their own ideo-political considerations established by themselves and in their service, not those of the ruling elite. The people directly analyze the socialized economy and determine its needs for reproduction and those of the people to guarantee their rights and well-being.

Also, the analysis of any budget coming from the ruling elite shows how it serves the ideo-political considerations of the monopoly capitalists. When the human factor/social consciousness is activated, people are able to see through the deception and go to the heart of the matter that the measures which serve the owners of the most powerful global monopolies are merely forms of committing theft. They are not meant to solve the problems of the economy in a manner that resolves its internal contradictions, serves the actual producers and guarantees the rights of the people and their claims on society.

Acts of Conscious Participation

The people must organize to deprive the ruling elite, their institutions and outlook of the power to deprive them from developing their own independent ideo-political considerations of the economy. This requires acts of conscious participation in acts of analyzing and finding out the contradictions and problems of the economy. This begins by depriving the ruling elite of the power to deprive our brains of the power to think and cognize, which requires conscious rejection of deeply held prejudices that interfere in the direct and immediate analysis of the economy's social relations.

Part Two
Mystery of State -- The Hoax of Balancing the Budget

Talk of a balanced government budget, or a surplus or deficit for that matter, is a hoax to divert attention from the public expenditures and lack of an economic base of the federal government. The attention directed towards a balanced budget, deficit or surplus to the extent it becomes an aim in itself renders government finances a mystery of state.

Any modern country with a developed socialized economy has necessary constant public investments to meet the needs of the people, their economy and general interests of society. If those investments are not met, then the people, economy and society suffer and may collapse. Those necessary public investments include social programs in health, education and the people's culture and welfare, public services, infrastructure and extended reproduction of the basic economic sectors.

The government of any modern country with a developed socialized economy must have an economic base from which it claims revenue to finance its public investments. The economic base of governments is found in public enterprises (crown corporations) from which they claim revenue such as Canada Post, power generation, liquor wholesale and retail distribution and others. On this front of revenue, privatization of public enterprise or its incorporation into private-public partnerships narrows the government's economic base and source of revenue. Governments also make claims on the added-value the working class produces and distributes throughout the socialized economy and on the services it provides while working in enterprises not under government ownership and control. The claims of governments on this added-value are realized through taxation of individuals and businesses. A government can also claim revenue through public financing of itself. It can borrow money from itself for purposes of investing in the country. The secured guarantee of the borrowed money exists in the assets of the country and its future economic prospects and expanded value of its people and economy but this method has been mostly overlooked in favour of government borrowing from individuals and private interests.

A truism would be to say that government investments cannot be made without a source of revenue. The primary factor in the budget dialectic is investments and the secondary factor revenue. The contradiction between the two factors drives a budget forward from conception to completion. Without investments there is no revenue; without revenue there are no investments. Investments drive revenue and revenue fulfills investments giving rise to a new quality. Balance of the two is only coincidental and temporary, as the dialectic unfolds within a conscious plan of action to develop and categorize the necessary investments and realize the revenue necessary to fulfil investments.

The Harper government hides government finances and makes the federal budget a mystery of state. One of the methods is to say that it needs a balanced budget, which is incoherent as it deals with neither how the government develops and categorizes its investments nor how it develops, categorizes and clarifies how to realize revenue.

Finance Minister Flaherty spreads the mystery of state while explaining the 2013 budget saying, "To ensure that Canada is well positioned to withstand any future economic shocks and address the future priorities of Canadians, Economic Action Plan 2013 sets out a low-tax plan to eliminate the deficit and return to balanced budgets by 2015-16. It achieves this by controlling direct program spending by federal departments, while maintaining the Governments commitment not to raise taxes or cut transfers to Canadians and other levels of government."

The statement is an incoherent mess. The aim of the budget becomes its "balance," which is a mere description of a fleeting phenomenon of the thing itself. How can a description of a thing in a temporary or transitory state be considered an aim? A temporary state of balance does not describe the dynamic relationship between investments and revenue or what the aim should be. The relationship is mostly in imbalance and this imbalance is a necessary dynamic feature of the dialectic leading to a new quality.

With investments as primary, the secondary factor (revenue) struggles to assert itself. If revenue becomes a surplus, it must give way to the primary factor of increased investments, as investments in the people, economy and society are infinitely needed and revenue infinitely needed to complete the necessary investments. When revenue becomes a deficit, the government's economic base requires expansion to satisfy the necessity for investments.

Flaherty speaks of reducing the primary factor in the budget dialectic (investments) so that it does not interfere with Harper's aim to balance the budget. Flaherty attacks investments in social programs with his words of "controlling direct program spending by federal departments." This becomes disinformation regarding where government investment is directed and where it is necessary.

Within the incoherent aim to balance the budget, Flaherty likewise attacks revenue. In doing so, Flaherty attacks the economic base of the federal government so as to hand over all public assets to private interests. The words of Flaherty are well underway in deeds as the government assaults its own economic base through privatization, private-public partnerships, selling off of public assets, destruction of the civil service, and lowering of corporate taxation such as the accelerated write-off (three years) of newly purchased equipment.

The Harper government does not want to talk directly of government investments and revenue because it has turned over public finances to private interests. Government investments and revenue serve the most powerful private monopoly interests. To hide this reality from the people, Harper and other governments engage in disinformation such as their constant chatter of balanced budgets, deficits, cutbacks to spending and anti-social austerity. They have made public finances and budgets a mystery of state.

For Your Information: Government Summary of 2012 Accounts

The largest single investment in a particular government program goes to the military amounting to $22.8 billion in fiscal year 2011-12, which was 8 per cent of the federal budget. The largest unproductive demand on government revenue goes to service the public debt amounting to $31 billion in 2011-12, which was 11 per cent of the federal budget. The people should ask why the government owes money to private individuals and institutions. This is a fraud existing mainly to pay the rich on a secure and consistent basis. Apologists for this backwardness say that government does not have enough revenue to finance its investments and must borrow from private individuals and institutions. This argument declares revenue as the primary factor of the budget, which is wrong. This argument covers up the reality that government refuses to build its economic base from which it can realize revenue to meet its necessary investments.

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Your Tax Dollar: 2011-2012 Fiscal Year

Transfer Payments

During 2011-12, the federal government had expenses totaling $271.4 billion.

Payments that go directly to persons, to provincial and territorial governments, and to other organizations are called "transfers."

Transfers are the largest category of government spending. They made up about 59 cents of each tax dollar spent ($159.7 billion).

Transfers to Persons

Major transfers to persons cost 25 cents of each tax dollar spent ($68.4 billion).

The biggest category within Transfers to Persons was elderly benefits.

These transfers include:

* Old Age Security
* Guaranteed Income Supplement
* Allowance for Spouses

Total elderly benefits cost $38.0 billion, or 14 cents of each tax dollar spent.

Another major transfer to persons is Employment Insurance (EI) benefits. Altogether, EI benefits cost over 6 cents of every tax dollar spent ($17.6 billion).

For information on EI premiums, see the section entitled "Where the money comes from."

The final category of Transfers to Persons is Children's Benefits. Canada provided $12.7 billion to help families raise their children through the Canada Child Tax Benefit and the Universal Child Care Benefit. These payments cost almost 5 cents of every tax dollar spent.

Transfers to Persons: Families and Children

Canada also provides assistance to low- and modest-income families -- especially those with children -- through the Goods and Services Tax (GST) credit ($3.9 billion).

Transfers to Provincial and Territorial Governments

Major transfers to other levels of government totaled $56.8 billion, or 21 cents of each tax dollar spent. These transfers help fund health care, post-secondary education and other programs for Canadians.

The Canada Health Transfer provided $27.2 billion for health programs, representing 10 cents of each tax dollar spent.

The Canada Social Transfer provided $11.5 billion for post-secondary education, social programs and programs for children, representing over 4 cents of each tax dollar spent.

Other major transfers, including the Equalization and Territorial Formula Financing programs and the gas tax transfers to cities and communities, totaled roughly 7 cents of every tax dollar ($18.1 billion).

The Equalization and Territorial Formula Financing programs help less prosperous provinces and territories provide services that are reasonably comparable at reasonably comparable levels of taxation. Gas tax transfers help Canada's cities and communities provide municipal infrastructure.

Transfers to Provincial and Territorial Governments: Health Care

Federal support for health care goes beyond cash payments under the Canada Health Transfer and the Equalization and Territories Financing Formula programs.

In 1977, provinces assumed a share of federal taxes to supplement direct cash transfers. In 2011-12, these "tax points" added some $22.1 billion to provincial finances for programs such as health care, post-secondary education, social assistance and social services.

In addition, the Government of Canada provided about $6 billion last year for:

* First Nations health services
* Health care for veterans
* Health research
* Programs for public health

Other Transfer Payments

Last year, spending on federal grants, contributions and subsidies added up to $34.5 billion, close to 13 cents of each tax dollar spent. This included approximately:

* $7.7 billion in transfers for First Nations and Aboriginal peoples;
* $1.7 billion in assistance to farmers and other food producers;
* $4.9 billion in foreign aid and other international assistance;
* $7.5 billion in support for research and development, infrastructure, regional development and assistance to businesses.

Other funding went to student assistance programs, health research and promotion, the arts, amateur sports, and multiculturalism and bilingualism.

Other Program Expenses

After transfers, the bulk of federal tax dollars went to cover the operating costs of the more than 130 government departments, agencies, Crown corporations and other federal bodies that provide programs and services for Canadians.

Government operating expenses such as salaries and benefits, facilities and equipment, and supplies and travel made up 30 cents of each tax dollar spent ($80.7 billion). Close to half of this spending -- just under 15 cents of each tax dollar -- went to just three organizations: National Defence, Public Safety Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency.

Defence

First, spending last year by National Defence on Canada's military forces made up 8 cents of each tax dollar spent ($22.8 billion).

Public Safety

Next, operating costs of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness represented close to 4 cents of each tax dollar spent ($9.4 billion).

This includes funding for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the federal prison system, and border traffic and security operations.

Canada Revenue Agency

And third, expenses of the Canada Revenue Agency, which administers the federal tax system (and also collects taxes for all provinces except Quebec) totaled $7.9 billion, or roughly 3 cents of each tax dollar spent.

Other Operations

A further $32.3 billion -- 12 cents of each tax dollar --  was spent on the operations of the other federal departments and agencies.


These included major departments such as:

* Environment
* Fisheries and Oceans
* Health
* Human Resources and Skills Development
* Industry
* Justice
* Natural Resources
* Public Works
* Transport
* Veterans Affairs

Funding also went to federal agencies such as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Parks Canada and the Canadian International Development Agency.

Paying for Parliament

One of the smallest spending slices goes to Parliament itself -- the House of Commons, the Senate and the Library of Parliament.

Last year, the combination of salaries and benefits for Members of Parliament, Senators and parliamentary staff, and spending on facilities and services, totaled $565 million. That's less than one-quarter of a cent of every tax dollar spent.

Crown Corporations

Crown corporations (organizations owned directly or indirectly by the government) cost $8.2 billion, or 3 cents of each tax dollar spent.

* Most of this spending was by two organizations:
* Canadian Commercial Corporation -- $2.4 billion and
* Atomic Energy of Canada Limited -- $2.0 billion.

Funding was also provided to cultural organizations (including the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Canada Council for the Arts), to enterprises like VIA Rail, and to the Canadian Tourism Commission.

These costs were partially offset by revenues earned by the Crown Corporations, which totaled $4.0 billion in 2011-12. These revenues are included as part of the Government's other revenues discussed in the section entitled "Where the money comes from".

Public Debt Charges

Interest charges on Canada's public debt -- money borrowed by the federal government over the years and not yet repaid -- cost $31.0 billion. That's about11 cents of every tax dollar spent.

Currently, 75% of this debt is owed to Canadians, including citizens and domestic institutions holding federal bonds, Treasury bills and other forms of the debt.

Where your tax dollar goes: Summary

That's our brief summary of federal spending for 2011--12.


Click to enlarge.

* Canada Health Transfer (10 cents)
* Canada Revenue Agency (3 cents)
* Canada Social Transfer (4 cents)
* Children's benefits (5 cents)
* Crown corporations (3 cents)
* Defence (8 cents)
* Employment Insurance benefits (6 cents)
* Other major transfers to other levels of government (7 cents)
* Other operations (12 cents)
* Other transfer payments (13 cents)
* Public debt charges (11 cents)
* Public Safety (4 cents)
* Support to elderly (14 cents)

Where the Money Comes From

During 2011-- 12, the federal government recorded $245.2 billion in revenues.

These revenues came from:

* Personal income tax -- $119.3 billion, or almost 49 cents of every dollar raised in revenues.
* Corporate income tax -- about $31.7 billion, close to 13 cents of every dollar.
* Goods and Services Tax -- $28.4 billion, or 11 cents of every dollar.

A number of other taxes -- such as non-resident withholding taxes, customs import duties, energy taxes and excise taxes and duties on alcohol and tobacco -- made up $20.0 billion, or 8 cents of every dollar raised in revenues.

As well, Employment Insurance premiums contributed $18.6 billion to federal revenues, roughly 8 cents of every dollar in revenues.

And other revenues -- such as earnings by Crown corporations and revenues from the sale of goods and services -- provided the remaining $27.3 billion, or 11 cents of every tax dollar.

Where the Money Comes From: Summary

* Corporate income tax (13 cents)
* Earnings by Crown corporations and revenues from the sale of goods and services (11 cents)
* Employment Insurance premiums (8 cents)
* Non-resident withholding taxes, customs import duties, energy taxes and excise taxes and duties on alcohol and tobacco (8 cents)
* Personal income tax (49 cents)
* Revenues from the Goods and Services Tax (11 cents)

The Budgetary Deficit

The $26.2-billion difference between the government's total expenses of $271.4 billion and total revenues of $245.2 billion is the 2011--12 budgetary deficit. The budgetary deficit represents an increase in the federal debt (accumulated deficit).

More About These Numbers

The federal government calculates its financial results over a 12-month "fiscal year" that ends every March 31. This presentation is based on the Annual Financial Report of the Government of Canada for the most recent complete fiscal year, 2011--12.

So that's the story of where your federal tax dollar goes, and how it is raised. If you want more detailed information, we've provided a series of useful links.

Useful Links

More information on Government of Canada finances is available from these sources:

Annual Financial Report

The Annual Financial Report of the Government of Canada provides overall financial data on federal revenues and spending on a full accrual accounting basis for the most recent complete fiscal year. It is available through the Finance Canada website under Publications.

Fiscal Reference Tables

Along with the Annual Financial Report, Finance Canada also publishes its annual Fiscal Reference Tables. Financial information on the provinces and territories is also included. The tables are available through the Finance Canada website under Publications.

The Fiscal Monitor

The annual Debt Management Report covers key elements of the federal debt strategy, and strategic and operational aspects of the Government's debt program and cash management activities over the past year. It is available on the Finance Canada website under Publications.

Public Accounts

The Public Accounts of Canada contain the Government's audited financial statements for the most recent fiscal year, and details of financial operations by each ministry. It is available through the Public Works and Government Services Canada website at http://www.pwgsc.gc.ca/recgen/text/pub-acc-e.html.

Debt Management Report

The annual Debt Management Report covers key elements of the federal debt strategy, and strategic and operational aspects of the Government's debt program and cash management activities over the past year. It is available on the Finance Canada website under Publications.

Canada Revenue Agency

While the Department of Finance is responsible for setting federal tax policy, it is the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) that manages the actual revenue collection for the federal government. A quick overview of CRA operations (and access to the agency's annual operating report and Internet home page) is available at the Canada Revenue Agency's Website.

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Summary of 2012 Budget


Click image to download PDF (30 pages).

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