Reconciliation Tables: From Public Accounts of Canada to the Government Finance Statistics, 2019 to 2022

Released: 2026-03-20

Today, Statistics Canada is releasing a new experimental product that aims to restore the conceptual and quantitative reconciliation of official Canadian government finance statistics (CGFS) published by Statistics Canada with the Public Accounts of Canada, prepared by the Receiver General for Canada.

About the Government Finance Statistics

The International Monetary Fund's Government Finance Statistics (GFS) is the internationally recognized macroeconomic statistical framework designed to support fiscal analysis and the compilation and dissemination of comparable statistics for the general government sector. The GFS framework allows for the compilation of detailed data on government revenue, expenses, assets and liabilities. The concepts and principles inherent in the GFS are harmonized with other macroeconomic statistical systems, notably the System of National Accounts.

Statistics Canada adopted the GFS for the compilation and dissemination of official public finance statistics as part of the 2012 historical revision of the Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts. Prior to this implementation, Statistics Canada used the Financial Management System (FMS), originally designed to produce estimates as a legislated input for the Fiscal Arrangements Act. Unlike the GFS, the FMS was a standard unique to Canada with its own classification system designed by Statistics Canada.

Although the objectives of the FMS program were similar to those of the GFS, international comparisons on Canada's key fiscal balances, such as surplus/deficit or net debt, were not possible. The FMS used a modified cash accounting system, which was not aligned with evolving macroeconomic accounting standards. As governments across Canada moved toward the adoption of accrual accounting in the 2000s, the benefits of adopting the internationally recognized GFS standard became clear.

As part of the former FMS program, Statistics Canada published reconciliation tables with the main financial aggregates of the federal and provincial-territorial public accounts. When Statistics Canada implemented the GFS standard, these reconciliation tables were discontinued and archived.

New experimental federal government reconciliation tables

These new experimental tables aim to reconcile the fiscal aggregates and balances from the Public Accounts of Canada presented in Volume 1: Summary Report and Consolidated Financial Statements, with the official statistics presented in Table 10-10-0016-01: Canadian government finance statistics for the federal government.

Public sector fiscal aggregates and balances compiled and disseminated by governments through official and audited financial reports, use a different set of accounting standards. In Canada, the Public Sector Accounting Standards (PSAS) set the guidelines for financial reporting for most government units, such as the federal and provincial-territorial public accounts.

These new reconciliation tables were designed to help users better understand and quantify the main conceptual differences between macroeconomic statistics and the Public Accounts of Canada prepared using the PSAS. These tables allow users to familiarize themselves with the concepts, definitions, accounting rules and economic classification of revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities underlying the GFS analytical framework.

Main features of the reconciliation tables

The tables are divided into five standardized reconciliation categories for each financial aggregate in the analytical framework of the GFS and the public accounts: revenue, expenses, financial assets, non-financial assets and liabilities. These aggregations are further subdivided into more than 60 reconciliation elements, providing comprehensive coverage of the differences between the GFS and the Public Accounts of Canada.

This approach ultimately helps users understand the differences between the measurement of surplus/deficit (annual operating deficit), net financial worth (net debt), and net worth (accumulated deficit) as presented in public accounts and official statistics disseminated by Statistics Canada for the federal government.

Where possible, the reconciliation tables use terminology of the Public Accounts of Canada and government programs. This helps users refer to the relevant components in the reference documents, while also allowing them to become familiar with the equivalent macroeconomic statistics terminology.

Main conceptual differences between the Government Finance Statistics and the Public Accounts of Canada

Institutional coverage, sectorization of units and consolidation

This mainly concerns market entities that are consolidated in public accounts but are not part of the general government sector based on well-defined sectorization criteria under the GFS framework. These entities include several enterprise Crown corporations and other government business enterprises that are instead classified in the financial and non-financial corporations sectors in macroeconomic statistics.

Classification and distinction between transactions and other economic flows

Transactions in macroeconomic statistics are interactions between institutional units by mutual agreement. Other economic flows (price revaluations, destruction of assets, etc.) are changes in the volume or value of assets and liabilities that do not result from transactions. For example, gains and losses (on the sales of assets, exchange rate fluctuations, etc.) recorded in the public accounts as revenues and expenses are classified as other economic flows in assets and liabilities in the GFS.

Accounting rules (time of recording, valuation)

Recording flows on an accrual basis and at market prices (including stock of assets and liabilities) constitute two fundamental characteristics of the accounting rules applied to macroeconomic statistics.

Although the Public Accounts of Canada have adopted accrual accounting since 2003, differences still exist in the application of these principles, thus impacting the time of recording for certain transactions such as government transfers. These differences can also be explained by the need to maintain consistency and symmetry of flows within different institutional sectors in macroeconomic statistics.

In public accounts, financial assets and liabilities are valued at amortized cost and non-financial assets at book value. Recording assets and liabilities at market prices in the GFS can lead to significant differences, particularly regarding outstanding debt securities, as well as the stock and depreciation of tangible fixed assets.

Grossing/netting of flows and stock positions

Flows and stock positions can be presented on either a gross or net basis. For example, an item presented on a net basis is calculated by subtracting the sum of one set of flows from the sum of a similar set, such as the total amount of taxes accrued minus tax refunds.

In the GFS framework, flows and stocks are generally presented on a gross basis, except for a few specific circumstances such as tax refunds or recoveries of expenses. The presentation in gross or net terms impacts the level of fiscal aggregates but not the balances (such as surplus/deficit or net debt).

The presentation of gross or net figures differs between the Public Accounts of Canada and the GFS for certain items. This includes differences in how allowances for bad debt on tax revenues, the goods and services tax credit, outstanding cheques and warrants, and Special Drawing Rights are recorded.

Definition and boundary of assets and liabilities

Only economic assets and actual liabilities are recorded in macroeconomic statistics, given a strict set of criteria, which can lead to a significant difference in the fiscal aggregates and balances (such as net debt) of the balance sheet compared to those recorded in the public accounts. Notably, employee future benefits (other than pension) and contingent liabilities are excluded from GFS liabilities and are instead recorded as memorandum items for analytical purposes.

Future developments

Statistics Canada is publishing four years of data in this first iteration of the reconciliation, namely the reference years 2019 to 2022. Two more years will be added in the near future (2023 and 2024). Subsequently, the plan is to publish these tables annually, every spring, with a one-year lag from the latest CGFS-released official estimates.

How to access the reconciliation tables: Government Finance Statistics Portal

The new reconciliation tables are available through a new CGFS data portal (also under development) on the .Stat Data Explorer platform.

To access the reconciliation tables directly, users can select the "Public Accounts to GFS Reconciliation Tables" under "Topic".

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).