Finances of the Nation Data Sets

A core mission of the Finances of the Nation project is to assemble new data sets on public finances and public policies of governments in Canada, and to assure data are consistent and comparable across jurisdictions and over time. All FON data sets are freely available for download under a Creative Commons licence, as long as you cite Finances of the Nation as the source. FON data sets also come with an interactive tools that allow you to display components of the data interactively.

FON’s current data projects are the following.

Fiscal Federalism

A series of data sets that addresses fiscal arrangements between federal and provincial governments.

Aggregate Federal Transfers

Total federal transfers for each province from their entry into Confederation until the most recently available fiscal year. 

Major Federal Transfers

Detailed information on transfers to provincial and territorial under specific federal tax and cash transfer programs, 1980/81-present.

Federal Fiscal Balances

The distribution of federal government revenue and spending across provinces, 1961 to present.

Personal Income Taxation

With this project, FON assembles information about personal income taxation in Canada.

Income Statistics

Assembles data on the distribution of sources of income, tax credits and deductions, and federal and provincial taxes paid, for each province in the 1992-present period.

In a future release, FON will also report data on federal and provincial/territorial marginal tax rates by source of income and level of income, for each province and territory over time.

Government Finances

A series of data sets to describe revenue, expenditure, assets, and liabilities of Canadian governments.

Fiscal Monitor

This dataset provides details on the federal government’s monthly consolidated finances.

Government Revenue and Expenditure

Detailed revenue and expenditure of federal and provincial/territorial, governments, by province and territory, 1965/66-present. 

Federal Debt

Net and gross debt of the Government of Canada since 1867, including marketable bills and bonds, pension liabilities, financial assets, and so on. Also reports annual interest paid on the debt.

Provincial-Territorial Debt

These data are drawn from the Provincial Public Accounts section of the Fiscal Reference Tables, a compendium of fiscal data published annually by the federal Department of Finance.

International Fiscal Comparisons

These data are drawn from the International Fiscal Comparisons section of the Fiscal Reference Tables, a compendium of fiscal data published annually by the federal Department of Finance.

Debt Sustainability Simulator

Debt sustainability is explored using fiscal gap analysis. These “fiscal gaps” represent the required change in primary balances (as a share of GDP) to maintain net debt to GDP ratios over a desired time horizon.

Quarterly Fiscal Data

The Quarterly Fiscal Data compiles quarterly government fiscal data from Statistics Canada’s regular updates

Statutory Tax Rates

Statutory tax rates are “headline” rates of tax on types of income or transactions, and a key feature of tax policy. Finances of the Nation has assembled historical data on statutory tax rates of the federal, provincial, and territorial governments under: (i) corporation income tax legislation (including general rates and reduced rates on small and manufacturing/processing businesses), and (ii) general sales taxes (including provincial Retail Sales Taxes and federal/provincial GST/HST legislation).

Finances of the Nation’s data projects rely on contributions from individual researchers, including Livio di Matteo, Luc Godbout, Ken McKenzie, Kevin Milligan, Michael Smart, and Trevor Tombe. If you have a data set you would like to contribute, contact admin@financesofthenation.ca