Expenditure authorities are approvals from Parliament for individual government organizations to spend up to specific amounts. Expenditure authority from Parliament is provided in two ways: (1) annual appropriation acts that specify the amounts and broad purposes for which funds can be spent; and (2) other specific statutes that authorize payments and set out the amounts and time periods for those payments.
An organization's expenditure authority received through appropriation acts may be supplemented by allocations from Treasury Board Central Votes 5, 10, 15, 25, 30 and 33.