A point of clarity. The legislation that allowed for those payments was independent of the estimates approval, but all items that have financial implications are put into the estimates document so that Parliament can see how much they've voted and how much they've approved through stand-alone legislation. The timing was such that when the main estimates for 2008-09 were put together, the budget implementation bill had not passed; therefore, this is the first opportunity. It may seem late because this would normally happen in the fall, but it was the first opportunity to present it to Parliament through the expenditure plan.
On February 10th, 2009. See this statement in context.