The big expenditure for both granting councils is due to the fact that in the 2010 budget, the government granted additional support for Centres of Excellence in marketing and in research. Before these votes can be approved, the granting agency must—in this case, it is the granting council—make a presentation to Treasury Board and Treasury Board must approve it. Once this is done, it is included in the supplementary appropriations. Therefore, there is always some turnaround time—you could even say a delay—that comes from the government's internal decision procedures. In fact, once the sums of money in the budget have been determined, the departments—in the case at hand, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council—are not allowed to spend it before the presentation is made to Treasury Board to define the modalities and the way that the money will be spent. After that, it must be approved by Treasury Board. This often explains why it takes so long.
On March 10th, 2011. See this statement in context.