Government Publications - British Columbia

• Government of British Columbia:  Official website and portal for the government of British Columbia.
• Crown Publications:
  • Queen's Printer for British Columbia.
  • Produces and sells BC government publications.
  • Contact me to order any B.C. publications.
• Legislative Library of British Columbia Resources:
  • Legislative Library Catalogue - Check here for digitized BC government publications and reports. Publications published after 1997 should be online.
  • BC Government Publications Portal - This portal features the Legislative Library of British Columbia's collection of digital British Columbia government publications. Historical publications have been digitized by the Legislative Library.​
  • Legislative Library Publications and Collections - The Library creates and maintains fact-checked lists of current and historical political information.
• For historical information - Publications of the Government of British Columbia 1871-1947 by Marjorie Holmes (PDF).

Budget

• Produced by the Ministry of Finance
• Outlines the Province's 3 year fiscal plan, including the economic outlook, revenues, spending, tax measures, and forecasting risks and assumptions.
• Budget 2024 has the most recent budget information.   
• Previous Budgets:
  • Online: 1976 - present available from the Legislative Library of BC.
  • Print: 1894 - 1976, 1967 - 1982, and 1983.
• Budget Speech:
  • Online: 1886 - 1975 and 1995 - present.
  • Print: 1984 - 2010.

Expenditure estimates

• Provide a detailed breakdown of proposed spending by ministry and government agency that must be debated and approved by the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.
• Online: 
  • 2001 - present available from the Legislative Library of BC.
• Print: 
  • 1982 - present. 
  • 1977/78 - 1981/82 (note: there is a separate Bibliographic record as the authoring body changed from Dept. of Finance to Ministry of Finance).
  • 1892/93 - 1976/77 (the previous title was Estimates of revenue and expenditure (Dept. of Finance)). 

Public Accounts

• Important accountability documents prepared by the provincial government.
• Provide audited financial statements and other information in a consistent, timely and understandable format.
• Illustrate how the government performed relative to its fiscal plan.
• Provide a picture of the current financial state of the government in terms of assts, liabilities and net debt. 
• They compare the actual financial results at the end of the fiscal year to the budget plan set out at the beginning of the fiscal year.

The main focus of the Public Accounts is the Summary Financial Statements representing the consolidated financial results and financial position of the province.

The Summary Financial Statements include:

• The financial statements and the supporting notes and schedules.
• The Province's Summary Financial Statements are reviewed by the Auditor General.
• The Statements provide a whole government view of how the province and its various organizations performed against the fiscal plan.
• Online:
  • 2000/01 - present and 1874 - 1985 (former titles: Statement of Expenditure (1874-1879); Appropriation and Expenditure (1880-81)).
  • 2010 - present available from the Government of BC. 
  • The Internet Archive has also several years between 1961-1998 of the Public Accounts.
• Print:
  • 1874 - 1976, 1976 - 77, 1985 - 1999; and 1999 - present.

Annual Reports

Each BC Government Ministry publishes an annual report. They typically describe the Ministry’s core businesses, goals, and strategies for the coming year; they also establish performance measures and include financial statements for each Ministry; over the years the content of the annual reports has lessened. If you go to a particular ministry or public private corporation (i.e. BC Ferries) you will find the recent reports on their websites. Older annual reports can be found by searching the Library catalogue.