I've not heard before that we base on the prior year. What happens is that departments go to Treasury Board and tell Treasury Board what they need to get through the first three months of the year. Traditionally you would divide your anticipated budget by 12 times 3, and that would give you your three-twelfths. In some situations you may ask for more.
In our case, we asked for more this year in recognition of MMIWG. In the case of the Leaders' Debates Commission, they asked for an even higher percentage for the same reason—a lot of their spending will be early on in the year and they wanted to make sure they had funding.
So it's a case-by-case situation depending on what the cash-flow needs of the department are.