Neither the late 1990s crisis on the Asian financial markets, nor the federal budget surpluses collapse of the high-tech bubble in the early 2000s extinguished the reoccurrence are desirable in the of federal surpluses. [...] The federal government has recognized that surprise surpluses erode the credibility of the budget process and limit the scope for parliamentarians to debate the uses of surpluses. [...] Overall, the 1990s For some of the OECD where the years when a broad range of countries underwent various degrees countries, the surplus of fiscal consolidation, and about 18 industrialized countries balanced their budgets during approximately the same time as Canada.5 was persisting for more than a decade The cavities of the international comparison lie not only within the range of countries used [...] While we agree with the general definition used by the Department of Finance Canada, the current structure of the federal budget implies certain duality of the surplus. [...] As you will have noted for the purpose of this report, the two components of the federal surplus are considered to be the planned surplus and the surprise surplus.