Hon. Elizabeth Marshall: Honourable senators, my remarks will also be brief. I rise to speak to Bill C-44, the first appropriation bill for the new fiscal year, which begins on April 1.

The government’s fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31, so the old year ends at midnight on Friday, March 31. If we don’t approve this bill, the government will not have the money it needs to continue operating the following day, on April 1.

This bill will approve some funding for the new fiscal year — just under $90 billion. It is called the interim supply bill. The Main Estimates have yet to be approved by the House of Commons and the Senate, so the government needs money to continue operating until the Main Estimates are approved. The $89 billion in this bill represents what we call an advance on the money requested in Main Estimates. That will be achieved by Bill C-44, which details the sums of money that the government requires to operate until June 30, when they expect the Main Estimates will be approved.

If you look at the bill itself, it’s quite lengthy. You’ll see that the funding is requested in twelfths of the amount requested in the Main Estimates because there are 12 months in the year. There are schedules in the bill, and it starts off by saying that all departments and organizations are requesting three months of funding, or three twelfths, which will bring them to the end of June.

Then there are exceptions: Certain votes are requesting four twelfths, some are requesting five twelfths and so on up to twelve twelfths. On average, in this bill, the government is requesting just over 45%. Last year, the government requested just around 40%, and in the year previous to that, they requested 42% of the Main Estimates. So the government is a little on the high side but in the ballpark.

Our Senate Finance Committee does not study the interim estimates, but the Main Estimates upon which interim estimates are based are currently being studied in committee.

As I indicated in my previous speech, it’s important to realize that the funding being approved in appropriation bills, including this bill, is actually less than half of the money being spent by government. Government also has approval in many pieces of government legislation to spend money. As I have said earlier, those other bills include the Financial Administration Act, the social security act, the budget implementation acts and so on.

This bill is requesting just over $89 billion of the $198 billion outlined in the Main Estimates for 2023-24. That concludes my comments.