Kevin Page’s recipe for PBO renewal

OTTAWA – Canada’s inaugural Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page will leave the position in two months when his appointment ends, but he has some advice for the federal government when it comes to his successor.

Soon after Page took office, he began advocating a legislative review for the next parliamentary budget officer, including an overhaul of the appointments process, reconsidering the office’s limited independence and revisiting its mandate.

Page outlined five things parliamentarians may wish to revisit with respect to legislation supporting the work of the parliamentary budget officer in an email to The West Block with Tom Clark.

Here is Page’s recipe for renewal in his own words.

Appointment: The current appointment process involves the parliamentary librarian, a committee to advance three names and a governor-in-council appointment. The appointed person works “at pleasure” for a five-year term. Parliamentarians may wish to consider an appointment process involving Parliament and an appointment of seven years. Dismissal should also be based on cause, not “pleasure” as the government may not always like the budget officer’s analysis.

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Independence: Currently, the parliamentary budget officer is housed in the Library of Parliament. While the budget officer has a substantive legislative mandate, the deputy head of the library is the librarian, who has administrative responsibilities and accountabilities. Going forward, parliamentarians may wish to consider an independent budget office and officer so that legislative and administrative responsibilities and accountabilities are aligned. Bureaucratic interference can be a threat as much as political interference. In the past, the budget officer has fought hard to preserve its open business and web-based publishing model. It took two years to get a human resource plan approved. Meanwhile, its budget was cut and then replenished.

Mandate: The parliamentary budget officer has a broad legislative mandate and a relatively modest budget to serve Parliament and Canadians – an issue parliamentarians may wish to address. A recent report by the parliamentary operations and estimates committee in June made a number of recommendations to strengthen the estimates system by allowing the budget officer to provide analytical support to help members of Parliament scrutinize the numbers. The issue playing out today with the government and deputy ministers relates to ensuring members of Parliament have sufficient financial information to carry out their fiduciary responsibilities before approval of departmental and agency spending authorities.

Transparency: Current legislation is silent on the issue of how the budget officer releases reports. Given the nature of economic and fiscal issues where information is updated daily and important and unanticipated events can have a material impact on public finances, budget officers need the flexibility to release timely analysis to Parliament and Canadians. Parliamentarians may wish to reinforce the non-partisan work and reputation of the budget officer by highlighting the principle of transparency in the release of the officer’s analysis, meaning documents would be released to all Parliamentarians at the same time and made available to Canadians.

Power of direct request: The budget officer’s power of direct request for information has been publicly and politically debated in recent months over budget information related to spending restraint. A year later, MPs and Canadians do not have spending plans for federal departments consistent with Budget 2012, even though MPs are asked to approve departmental spending authorities. The parliamentary budget officer’s efforts to obtain information on spending restraint were criticized by the federal cabinet as an action that exceeds its mandate. This is now the subject of a reference opinion in federal court. The information at stake is critical to the estimates process. Parliamentarians may wish to consider if they want to clarify and strengthen powers of agents and officers of Parliament in the request of information deemed critical for them to carry out their mandates. We need a conversation that not only strengthens the principle of fiscal transparency but helps create a culture of transparency and analytical support for decision-making.