"Measuring
Austerity in Atlantic Canada investigates whether the use of the term
austerity in the context of Atlantic Canada’s public finance is accurate. The
author examines public accounts data from the four provinces, adjusting for
inflation, to determine the annual amount of program expenditure in absolute
and per capita terms. He also calculates the relative increase or decrease in
spending from year to year, establishing the trend in provincial government
expenditures in Atlantic Canada.
"The report offers three main findings:
- The budgets of southern European countries such as
- Provincial governments in Atlantic Canada have increasingly
spent more money on programs — in absolute and per capita terms — between 1980
and 2016. Per capita program expenditure in
- A shifting demographic landscape in the region — notably its
aging population — does not suffice to explain these significant spending
increases. While the school-age population has dwindled in the four
"The report concludes that the use of the term austerity in
relation to fiscal policy in the Atlantic Canadian provinces is hyperbolic,
inappropriate and inaccurate.
"All governments spend more money than they did a generation
ago, with only minor blips of restraint and no sustained or disciplined effort
to cut spending significantly. The nature of Atlantic Canadian public finance,
therefore, is not one of austerity but of consistent spending growth over a
sustained period."
-srbp-
