OTTAWA - Parliament is being asked to approve at least $211.7 billion in spending for fiscal 2007-08, but that number will almost certainly rise before the year is out.
The base figure comes from the main spending estimates for the year, tabled in the Commons by Treasury Board President Vic Toews.
It represents an increase of six per cent over last year's main estimates, but the actual totals spent by Ottawa are invariably higher than the original estimates, which are adjusted during the year by the tabling of supplementary spending plans.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has already projected, in an economic update last November, that actual spending for the fiscal year that starts April 1 will be $230.8 billion, some of which will be offset through revenue such as government user fees.
Officials say further modifications could come when Flaherty delivers the Tory government's second budget on March 19.
By law, the main estimates must be tabled each year before March 1, kicking off a series of committee reviews and votes in the Commons through which MPs exercise their control over the public purse.
