By Executive Decree

First Orders: Treasury Board

Photograph of Parliament's West Block
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Discours prononcé par l'Honorable A.T. Galt, ministre des Finances du Canada, en présentant le budget, published in 1866
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In this section:

When the Privy Council convened on July 2, 1867, the Dominion of Canada was only a day old. On the first day of business, essential executive roles had been assigned by orders-in-council identifying the country's lieutenant-governors and the On the second day, business turned to the country's finances and in particular to the composition of a vital executive unit, the "Board of Treasury." heads of the new federal departments. The ministerial membership and broadly defined fiscal advisory role of this committee was approved by order-in-council. The Minister of Finance was designated chairman of the Board, and a separate order-in-council gave the chairman authority to initiate the budgetary process in support of the day-to-day workings of government. On July 3, the minister submitted detailed recommendations for the administration of federal revenue, which would include an initial transaction worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to integrate the economies of the former British colonies united under Confederation.