Bill worries budget officer
OTTAWA • Parliamentary Budget Officer Jean-Denis Fréchette raised major concerns with the budget implementation bill the Liberal government introduced Tuesday in the House of Commons.
The bill would make the PBO an official officer of parliament, which Fréchette said Wednesday is a good thing, but, he says, the bill also introduces new “restrictions.”
Fréchette confirmed he wasn’t consulted on the legislation. He was surprised there was no communication with his office, he said.
The requirement of approval from House of Commons and Senate speakers for an annual “work plan,” for one thing, raises big questions.
“I’m curious to know why.” Fréchette said. “It is an unknown. It is something that we have to ask questions about. Is it a way to control the agenda of the work that we will do? I don’t know.”
Unexpected events can happen, and the PBO may want to initiate a study on major government spending.
For example, Fréchette hypothesized, if Canada were to launch a military engagement, would the PBO need to amend its work plan and conduct a study on the cost of a mission? Or would its work be restricted, based on the Speaker’s approval?
The bill would require the PBO to cost political parties’ election platforms if requested, something the office suggested in its own proposal for draft legislation last summer. But Fréchette isn’t so keen.
“The costing of platforms is not something that I am a proponent of. I’ve been vocal before. I don’t think it’s the greatest idea in the world because it could create some problems in terms of the neutrality and the non-partisanship,” he said.
The way the Liberals propose to legislate this is “topheavy” and “overly complicated,” Fréchette said — “it’s just one problem after (another), the whole section.”
Finally, access to information provisions are a “disappointment,” Fréchette said. Two big changes come with the bill: the PBO can access “information,” writ large, rather than just “data” and it can seek such information from Crown corporations, not just departments.
But it is unclear, Fréchette said, whether there is any remedy for the PBO to complain should departments or Crown corporations prove unwilling to provide necessary information.
The legislations also says the PBO “shall, if requested to do so by a member of the Senate or of the House of Commons, estimate the financial cost of any proposal that the member is considering making before the Senate or the House of Commons or a committee of either or both Houses.”
Mark Kennedy, director of communications for Government House Leader Bardish Chagger, said legislation is intended to provide “greater independence” to the PBO and to “strengthen” the office.