Canada posts $9 billion surplus over 10 months

OTTAWA -- The federal government is reporting a surplus of $9 billion for the first 10 months of the fiscal year.
The government added $1.7 billion to its surplus in January alone, the Finance Department said Thursday.
That's down $700 million from the same month a year earlier.
For April to January, the surplus was down $3.9 billion from the same period in 2004-05. Revenues were actually up by $6.5 billion but spending jumped by a whopping $11.1 billion, mainly due to higher transfer payments to provinces for health care and equalization.
Debt charges dropped by $700 million as the government continued to pay down the national debt.