This is the second course of the Finance courses of the Management Series Program.

In this online course, you will learn about the Government of the Northwest Territories’ budgeting process.

This course takes about 1 ½ hours, but can be taken in separate sections or lessons, depending on the time you have available. Each lesson concludes with review questions to answer.

This course draws upon a number of sources, including the Financial Administration Act and Manual, budget documents, business plans, Main and Capital Estimates and various manuals that have been prepared to provide guidance to GNWT staff involved in planning and budgeting. These references are available online and links are provided where appropriate via the Department of Finance website.

Lessons:

Lesson 1: Budget Process Overview - This lesson provides an overview of what a budget is and how it gets approved, including the approval of the budget by the legislative authority.  We will review the various components of the GNWT’s budget process – starting with the fiscal framework and strategy, which lay out the forecast of government resources and the “big picture” plan for how those resources will be used.

Lesson 2 & 3: Business Planning & Capital Planning - This lesson covers the planning processes, including business planning for Operations and Maintenance (O&M) expenditures, and capital planning for infrastructure expenditures.

Lesson 4: Budget Approval, Budget Address, Estimates and Appropriation - This lesson focuses on the preparation of the Main Estimates and Capital Estimates, the Budget Address and the Appropriation Acts.  These are the documents used to formally lay out the government’s budget plan for a fiscal year and obtain approval for it from the Legislative Assembly.

Lesson 5: Variance Reporting, Budget Adjustments and Supplementary Appropriations - This lesson looks at variance reporting, budget adjustments and supplementary appropriations and how we monitor actual events and compare them to the plans laid out in the budget, and what happens if plans don’t match actual experience.

Lesson 6: Preparation of FMB Submissions - This lesson looks at the process of seeking approval from the FMB.