Consolidated Government Financial Assets and Liabilities

Summary of changes

Activity on this program started: 1950

Reference period of change - 2008

2007/2008 is the final reference year for which government financial statistical data will be available on a Financial Management System basis. Statistics Canada has decided to move towards reporting government finance statistics on a Government Finance Statistics 2001 basis. The GFS 2001 is an international accepted accrual accounting framework for government finance statistics. The GFS 2001 is also fully integrated with the United Nation's System of National Accounts framework.

See the Government Finance Survey (GFS, record number 5174) for a description of the statistical program which replaces this one.

While it will take a number of years to be able to derive detailed GFS-based statistics directly from government financial information (Statistics Canada will begin publishing public sector statistics based on the GFS 2001 manual in calendar year 2014), Statistics Canada has decided to release quarterly GFS data using Canadian System of National Accounts (CSNA) government sector data and a bridging model that maps these data to the GFS framework. The CSNA (consistent with the United Nations' System) already compiles some government data on an accrual basis and therefore offers the foundation to produce preliminary estimates of government data on a GFS basis.