Ottawa wants billions more for debt, defence, Indigenous kids – National

Treasury Board President Anita Anand is asking Parliament to approve an extra $8.9 billion in spending in the current fiscal year, which ends March 31.

Most of it is for extra costs associated with finance charges, providing health care for Indigenous children, and for military projects at home and abroad, according to the latest supplementary spending estimates from the federal government.

The single biggest item the government needs more money for is an extra $3.2 billion to service the national debt.

But the Department of Indigenous Services also needs nearly $2 billion more than it planned at the beginning of the fiscal year, much of that for programs to improve health-care services for Indigenous children.

The Department of National Defence is asking Parliament to approve $1.9 billion to boost both its capital and operating budget, including money destined for military projects in Latvia and Ukraine.

Some of those funds will also be used for new costs associated with the acquisition of new reconnaissance aircraft and new airborne tanker transports for the Air Force.

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The extra funds should push the government’s overall spending for the 2023-24 fiscal year to $496.6 billion. That would represent an increase of $13.5 billion, or 2.8 per cent, versus the previous fiscal year.

The new spending requests, known formally as the Supplementary Estimates (C), 2023-2024 were tabled Feb. 15 in the House of Commons.

These estimates are the final request for new spending in the current fiscal year. Various parliamentary committees will now study the different requests for new funding before all MPs will vote on them.

The votes on spending requests, which have not yet been scheduled, are, by tradition, matters of confidence. In recent years, they’ve also occasionally been the subject of overnight marathon votes forced by the opposition. So long as the supply-and-confidence agreement holds between the minority Liberal government and the 25-member NDP caucus, those votes should pass the House.

The extra $3.2 billion…