There are probably two ways to answer the question.
First, in response to your question of why, I'd say it's because they can; it's just because they can. The more honest answer would probably be because there's no hard deadline for government departments, the Treasury Board Secretariat or the government to be timely in their tabling of the public accounts. There's no deadline other than December 31, so work expands to fill the time available. They do that relatively well, and they've done that over the last several months. By saying that, I think I'm off the Christmas card list of many more people, but that's okay.