N.S. auditor general calls out billions of dollars in spending outside budget process

Nova Scotia’s auditor general is continuing her fight for more accountability over government spending that isn’t approved by the legislature.

Kim Adair says spending outside the official budget process has hit $7 billion over the last decade.

Her new report released today says the government spent $1.38 billion in the 2023-24 fiscal year that wasn’t first authorized by a majority vote in the legislature.

Adair says that extra-budget spending — called “additional appropriations” by the government — accounted for 8.2 per cent of the government’s total expenditures in 2023-24 compared to only 1.3 per cent in the 2014-15 fiscal year.

She says that in four of the past five fiscal years, government revenues exceeded budget forecasts — affording the governing party money to spend that isn’t approved by the legislature.

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For the third consecutive year, Adair is recommending changes to the province’s Finance Act that would give more oversight authority to the legislature, something the government has refused to do.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 11, 2025.