Sure. I have two examples.
In the 1997 budget, as we were just coming up to a balanced budget, there was a total for 1997-98, the next fiscal year,of $600 million in new direct program spending proposals. The supplementaries in total that year were $3.7 billion of voted spending. Last year, in contrast, we had $2.6 billion—an extra $2 billion—of proposed new direct program spending for the coming fiscal year, which is this fiscal year. Supplementary estimates proposed for this year in total are $5.4 billion.
As a second example, we spoke about operating budget carry-forward, which is always the largest element of supplementary estimates. We can't know how much to allow departments to carry forward until September, when the public accounts close. That's $1 billion this year in the combined supplementaries. It was $954 million last year. It was $1 billion the year before that.
Basically, operating budgets have doubled over 10 years. That in itself also contributes to an increase in the underlying amount of supplementaries, so it's both larger government and more policy spending.