Section 9: Loans, investments and advances as at March 31

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Loans, investments and advances

Loans, investments and advances is a category of financial claims represented by debt instruments and ownership interests acquired through the use of parliamentary appropriations, except for the portion of the investment balances representing adjustments for the equity of enterprise Crown corporations and other government business enterprises. Some of these appropriations permit repayments to be used for further loans and advances. Details of the use of non-budgetary appropriations, for loans, investments and advances, can be found in the ministerial sections of Volume II.

The investment in enterprise Crown corporations and other government business enterprises is accounted for under the modified equity method and is carried at cost which is adjusted for the annual profits or losses of the enterprises and reduced by any dividends paid by the corporations to the government. Under the modified equity method, the accounting policies of the enterprise Crown corporations and other government business enterprises are not adjusted to conform to the government's accounting policies. The government also reports any amounts receivable from or payable to these corporations and where the government has advanced funds to the corporations to support their direct lending activities, the amounts are recorded as loans and advances by the government.

Other loans, investments and advances are initially recorded at cost and are subject to annual valuation to reflect reductions from the recorded value to the approximate net recoverable value. Foreign currency transactions are translated and recorded in Canadian dollar equivalents at the exchange rates prevailing at the transaction dates. Balances of loans, investments and advances resulting from foreign currency transactions are reported at year-end closing rates of exchange; net gains and losses related to these sovereign loans are presented with the return on investments from these loans under other program revenues.

The allowance established to reflect reductions from the recorded value to the approximate net recoverable value of financial claims held by the government has been authorized by the Minister of Finance and the President of the Treasury Board, under subsection 63(2) of the Financial Administration Act.

Revenues received during the year on loans, investments and advances, are credited to other revenues. Details can be found in Section 3 of this volume and in Section 10 of Volume III.

Table 9.1
Loans, investments and advances
(in dollars)
  April 1, 2019 Payments and other charges Receipts and other credits March 31, 2020
Enterprise Crown corporations and other government business enterprises, Table 9.2 108,169,210,200 61,607,485,847 44,669,001,194 125,107,694,853
Portfolio investments, Table 9.10 68,427,254 – 2,545 68,424,709
National governments including developing countries, Table 9.11 881,876,462 72,370,369 504,100,163 450,146,668
International organizations, Table 9.12 23,741,309,479 1,205,841,539 22,917,118 24,924,233,900
Provincial and territorial governments, Table 9.13 406,651,073 – 60,202,168 346,448,905
Other loans, investments and advances, Table 9.14 30,048,543,172 7,034,571,551 5,739,625,702 31,343,489,021
Subtotal 163,316,017,640 69,920,269,306 50,995,848,890 182,240,438,056
Less: allowance for valuation 29,404,277,075 1,706,577,513 1,371,746,006 29,739,108,582
Total 133,911,740,565 68,213,691,793 49,624,102,884 152,501,329,474

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