Do you wonder exactly how your federal tax dollars are spent? Reports from the 2010-2011 fiscal year will tell you that:

Approximately 58 cents of every tax dollar spent ($157.9 billion) were paid directly to individuals, provincial and territorial governments, and other organizations.

Major transfers to individuals took 25 cents per tax dollar or $68.1 billion:

• Benefits to seniors (Old Age Security, Guaranteed Income Supplement and Spousal Allowance) cost about $35.6 billion, or roughly 13 cents of every tax dollar spent.
• Employment Insurance (EI) benefits accounted for over 7 cents of every tax dollar spent ($19.9 billion).
• 5 cents of every tax dollar spent ($12.7 billion) went to help families raise their children through the Canada Child Tax Benefit and the Universal Child Care Benefit. (Canada also provides assistance to low- and modest-income families through the Goods and Services Tax (GST) credit.)
  

Major transfers to provinces and territories totaled about $53.0 billion last year—about 20 cents of every tax dollar spent:

• The Canada Health Transfer provided $26 billion for health programs, representing almost 10 cents of each tax dollar spent.
• The Canada Social Transfer provided $11.2 billion for post-secondary education, social programs and programs for children, representing about 4 cents of every tax dollar spent.
• Other major transfers, including the Equalization and Territorial Formula Financing programs and the gas tax transfers to cities and communities, totaled roughly 6 cents of every tax dollar spent ($15.8 billion).
  

Spending on federal grants, contributions and subsidies added up to $36.8 billion, almost 14 cents of each tax dollar spent. This included transfers to Aboriginal peoples, food producers and foreign aid.

After transfers, the bulk of each tax dollar spent—30 cents ($81.7 billion), went to cover the operating costs of the more than 130 government departments, agencies, Crown corporations and other federal bodies that provide programs and services for Canadians.

14 cents of each tax dollar spent went to fund the costs of three organizations:

• 8 cents ($21.3 billion) to National Defence.
• over 3 cents ($9.4 billion) to Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.
• close to 3 cents ($7.3 billion) to the Canada Revenue Agency.

12 cents ($33.1 billion) of each tax dollar spent funded the operations of the other federal departments and agencies, including a quarter of a cent per tax dollar to fund Parliament itself (including salaries and benefits for Members of Parliament, Senators and all the parliamentary staff, as well as the facilities and all service costs to keep it running.)

Crown corporations (organizations owned directly or indirectly by the government) cost $10.5 billion, or just under 4 cents of each tax dollar spent.

And finally, about 11 cents of every tax dollar spent ($30.9 billion), paid for the interest charges on Canada's public debt.

Hopefully a look at the big picture is helpful as we prepare for the upcoming federal budget on March 29th. For more details visit www.fin.gc.ca.

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The audio version of Garry's March 12, 2012 op-ed column can be heard by clicking here