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The federal government sat on close to $9.5 billion in approved expenditures last fiscal year, including $2 billion in unspent funding for the Department of National Defence, as it tried to balance the books during an election year.

Billions of dollars more went unspent at Treasury Board, Aboriginal Affairs, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Veterans Affairs, and Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development – to name a few departments, according to federal Public Accounts tabled this week in the House of Commons.

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Some degree of underspending is expected each year. But the 2014-15 lapse, as unspent federal funds are called, far exceeded the $7.2-billion projected in the federal government’s budget plan in April. It also brings the total of unspent funding over the last three years to nearly $28 billion.

The numbers were tabled the same week the current Liberal government faces scrutiny over its own plans for the budget: In its case, it plans to run deficits, whereas the Tories looked for all means available to ensure the budget would balance.