Province releases 2018-19 public accounts

The 2018-19 public accounts — the audited financial statements of the province for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019 — have been released and tabled with the House of Assembly, it was announced Thursday.

The deficit for 2018-19 has been revised to $552.1 million — a $30.6 million change from the 2018-19 revised estimate released during Budget 2019, which represents a change of less than half a per cent from the overall budget. This marks an improvement of $130.8 million from the original Budget 2018 projection, the government stated in a news release.

The final deficit number for 2018-19 is revised based on slightly higher than anticipated revenues of $7.83 billion (from a revised projection of $7.75 billion), based on higher than anticipated offshore revenues, investment revenues and various other revenue sources. In addition, expenses of $8.38 billion were slightly higher than anticipated (from a revised projection of $8.27 billion), which is primarily attributable to actuarial adjustments, the government stated.

The public accounts are prepared in accordance with the standards established for governments by the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada.

The Consolidated Summary Financial Statements were independently audited by the auditor general and were issued with an unqualified audit opinion.

“Despite facing significant external and internal pressures over the past four years, we have maintained a steady course of deficit reduction and have met our fiscal targets each year,” Finance Minister Tom Osbourne was quoted in the news release.

“The 2018-19 public accounts show a variance of less than half of a per cent from the overall budget. We remain more than 99 per cent on track — a positive outcome for any budget projection — and we remain committed to staying the course toward economic prosperity.”