Or watchdog on government spending?

That would give the PBO a clearer mandate and predictable funding, as well as the necessary independence, accountability and access to budgetary information, he argues.

“The office, as it has carried out its mandate over the past five years, will not exist five to 10 years from now unless the legislation is renewed ... The choice is, Do we want to have a true independent and competent legislative budget office or not?”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, under fire this week in the Commons over the government’s repeated criticisms of the PBO, noted the Conservatives created the job to ensure it provides independent, nonpartisan analysis of fiscal matters.

“We are committed to that and want to make sure in future that the office does credible and non-partisan work,” Harper said.

The PBO has asked the Federal Court to clarify its mandate and specifically whether it has the jurisdiction to demand details of $5.2 billion in federal budget reductions over the next few years. Several departments have withheld the information Page says he needs to do this.

Federal lawyers are expected to argue in court in March that it’s up to Parliament, not the Federal Court, to decide the PBO’s role.

There is support among some Tory backbenchers for the PBO.

“If a parliamentary budget officer is to provide meaningful advice to Parliament, from time to time the government is going to disagree with that advice, and that is just part of the scrutinizing process,” says Edmonton MP Brent Rathgeber.

Rathgeber says he understands the PBO’s request to report to Parliament, separated from the library, will be revisited with the appointment of the next budget officer.

He agrees that making the PBO an officer of Parliament would provide greater independence, and make it more difficult for cabinet to remove the budget officer from the position.

Rathgeber says there is a perception the PBO has become partisan, and he wants it to be “less public,” more like other officers of Parliament such as the privacy and language commissioners, who don’t snare nearly as many headlines.

Page has not always helped himself. He recently offered CBC Radio’s As It Happens a tongue-in-cheek list of key skills his successor will need, including knowledge of ”early childhood development” and “smoke and mirrors.”

He joked the next PBO needs “decades of experience toiling away under senior public service and cabinet ministers ... whose primary interest is to advance their personal careers at the expense of the democratic and financial health of the country.”

Page has been under the microscope since he took the helm nearly five years ago.

Not long after he was appointed, then-Commons Speaker Peter Milliken and Senate Speaker Noel Kinsella said he’d overstepped his mandate and should not be operating so independently and openly.

Today, Milliken says the role of the office has evolved. He believes the officer should report directly to parliamentarians, and he doesn’t believe the PBO was ever meant to be just a sounding board for government, as Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has suggested.

Instead, it should continue to offer independent analysis on federal government expenditures, projections and legislation, Milliken says.

“The office has value,” Rathgeber adds. “There are some problems with some of the current perceptions, but I think it does good work.”