{"id":43275,"date":"2024-03-03T13:53:47","date_gmt":"2024-03-03T17:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=43275"},"modified":"2024-03-03T13:53:47","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T17:53:47","slug":"province-cautioned-on-uncertainty-impacting-2024-25-revenue-estimates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=43275","title":{"rendered":"Province cautioned on uncertainty impacting 2024-25 revenue estimates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From a press release<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

HALIFAX:<\/strong> For the fourth year in a row, Nova Scotia\u2019s Auditor General is cautioning the province about the significant uncertainty impacting its Revenue Estimates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Auditor General Kim Adair has issued a \u201ccaution\u201d on the 2024-25 revenue estimates \u2013 the projected revenue the province anticipates for the coming year \u2013 which were released in the Provincial Budget. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Auditor General\u2019s report starts on page 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AG first arrived at that opinion when COVID-19 impacted the 2021-22 budget. Since then, the province experienced two years of significant budget-to-actual increases to the province\u2019s major tax revenues: $1.7 billion in 2022-23 and $660 million in 2021-22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For the current year, the province is forecasting another notable jump of $936 million over the initial budget amount. These budget-to-actual increases have not been unique to the Province of Nova Scotia; they have also been observed in other jurisdictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Auditor General annually conducts a review and reports whether the Revenue Estimates used by the province to prepare its annual budget are reasonable and presented fairly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many years, that report was standard but since 2021-22, the Auditor General has cautioned of the \u201csignificant uncertainty\u201d impacting the Revenue Estimates, although her opinion remains unmodified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere have been significant revenue increases compared to budget for three years in a row now, totaling more than $3 billion,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Since 2021, the N.S. has used that increased revenue to advance additional spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Nova Scotia is following the Finance Act, the process for over-budget spending is not in line with other provinces across Canada, where legislatures are required to review, vote on, and approve the extra amounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To address this, the Auditor General has recommended a change to the Finance Act in her Annual Financial Report, but the Department and Minister of Finance and Treasury Board have so far refused to implement the recommendation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next week, the Auditor General will release a new audit on the Value for Money of the Province\u2019s Over-Budget Spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The audit will examine whether spending outside of the budget process in the past two years considered value for money and safeguarded public funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From a press release HALIFAX: For the fourth year in a row, Nova Scotia\u2019s Auditor General is cautioning the province about the significant uncertainty impacting its Revenue Estimates. Auditor General Kim Adair has issued a \u201ccaution\u201d on the 2024-25 revenue estimates \u2013 the projected revenue the province anticipates for the coming year \u2013 which were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43276,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[957],"tags":[1284,50,5527,5528,6263,6264],"class_list":["post-43275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-budget","tag-halifax","tag-kim-adair","tag-n-s-auditor-general","tag-n-s-budget","tag-spending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}