Archives
Liberals flip-flop, now push for full independence of budget officeGrits said they were 'concerned' about Page's independence, now they're asking the government to 'unshackle' him. Published October 12, 2009  1 Comment |
View story
Email 
Comments
To the Editor
The Liberals are changing their tune on Canada's Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, want to "unshackle" the office and are now pushing for full independence, after some Grits spent last spring criticizing Mr. Page for going beyond the letter and spirit of the law.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff (Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Ont.) said during Question Period last week that the government must "unshackle" the PBO and allow him to track the government's multi-billion-dollar stimulus spending. The day after, Mr. Ignatieff met with Mr. Page and later told The Globe and Mail that he is taking on the issue of the independence of the office.
The Parliamentary Budget Office is not an officer of Parliament and falls under the jurisdiction of the Library of Parliament. Mr. Page has been trying to follow his mandate, but has also been fighting for independence and accountability and is known in Ottawa as "the man who knows too much." He was reined in last spring by the Joint Library of Parliament and told that if he does not follow the rules, he won't be getting his promised $2.8-million budget, a $1-million increase. The report was passed by all four parties because they said they wanted him to get his promised budget increase, but the NDP and Bloc said they also wanted the office to be independent of the Library of Parliament. The Conservatives and the Liberals did not publicly push for independence.
Liberal Senator Sharon Carstairs, co-chair of the Library of Parliament Committee, tried to reign in the PBO's independence. In February of this year, Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett (St. Paul's, Ont.) told The Hill Times that she was concerned about the amount of media attention the PBO had garnered on issues regarding its budget and the disagreements with Parliamentary Librarian William Young.
"I don't know of another bureaucrat or public servant who gets to go public when their budget is cut. A deputy minister would be fired," Ms. Bennett said about Mr. Page's public fight to have his budget increased by $1-million, something he said was promised to him in last year's estimates.
At the time, Ms. Bennett said it wouldn't be in the best interest of Parliamentarians for the Parliamentary Budget Office to release reports independently and without the approval of those who commissioned the reports. "I'm quite concerned [that] the Parliamentary Budget Officer sees himself as an independent practitioner who can report whenever he wants," Ms. Bennett said in February.
When the joint committee released its unanimous report with 10 recommendations for Mr. Page to follow, including working within the Library of Parliament's structure and not independently, in order to receive the $1-million budget increase, no Liberals spoke out against it.
In July of this year, Sen. Carstairs told The Hill Times, she believed Mr. Page had broken the letter of the law by trying to act like an officer of Parliament when he's not. "If you look at the man's stationery, it says the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, well, there is no Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, the Parliamentary Budget Officer is an officer of the Library of Parliament, so from the very beginning, he took an attitude that he was more than he was actually given within the mandate set by law," Sen. Carstairs said.
The PBO was an office created by the Federal Accountability Act in 2006 to provide "truth in budgeting." Since Mr. Page began his job in March last year, there have been conflicting interpretations of his role as well as on issues regarding the release of reports, hiring of staff and budget. The Speakers of the House and Senate, who oversee the Library of Parliament and Parliamentary Librarian asked the Joint Committee to look into these issues. The committee concluded that the PBO should operate in a more muted manner within the Library and if it did so, the office would receive the budget Mr. Page had been asking for.
Liberals last week, however, said they have always been consistent in their support for the office. "I don't think there was a change so much as there was a debate in Liberals about this, like Carolyn Bennett said one thing and John McCallum [said another] and the leader said, 'Well, clarity. We need this to be independent, they need to be separate,'" said Liberal Research Bureau director Kevin Bosh. "I think some Liberals believe that it could work under the current structure but now it's a situation where it's obvious that it's not working."
When asked why the leader had made that decision now, after the committee took the last session to look into the office and its operations and make recommendations, Mr. Bosh said, "I don't know, why not?"
Liberal MP John McCallum (Markham-Unionville, Ont.), the finance critic for his party, said Mr. Ignatieff's statements have "strengthened" their position regarding the PBO. He said the party decided that an independent PBO will be part of their election platform and that a private member's bill on the matter would be "conceivable" but the party has not discussed it.
"We've always supported him in terms of his budget, the issue of the independence and the salary classifications had not arisen, but the additional step we took was to say that he ought to be an independent officer of Parliament," said Mr. McCallum.
Shortly after the Joint Library of Parliament Committee tabled its report, NDP MP Paul Dewar (Ottawa Centre, Ont.), introduced a private member's bill that would make the PBO independent. He said he has "noticed the change in focus" by the Liberals and that it's "a blessing" for the Liberal leader to take up this issue.
"The first issue was to keep the office going because money wasn't flowing, that was absolutely critical, no question, triage [was] needed there so the next obvious step is ... dealing with the primary issue and that is for that office to be situated separate from the Library and to be set-up truly independent," said Mr. Dewar.
Neither Mr. Bosh or Mr. McCallum were aware of Mr. Dewar's bill but both said their party would support it.
Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe (Laurier-Sainte Marie, Que.) didn't place much credence on Mr. Ignatieff's sudden support for the PBO. "They're just like the Tories, in opposition they say something, they do exactly the opposite when they are in power," Mr. Duceppe said. His party has been asking for an independent office since the PBO was created, but Mr. Duceppe said they weren't able to push for that in the committee because, with only two members on the 17-member committee they don't have enough of a voice.
The Joint Committee on the Library of Parliament met last Thursday to elect its co-chairs, Sen. Carstairs and Conservative MP Peter Goldring (Edmonton East, Alta.). During the 11-minute meeting, the committee also briefly discussed the PBO's state of affairs. Two weeks ago, Mr. Page responded to the committee's report with his own report on progress he has made to implement the recommendations the committee imposed on his office but the committee won't let him release it on his website.
Sen. Carstairs informed committee members the Speakers of the House and Senate met with the co-chairs. House Speaker Peter Milliken (Kingston and the Islands, Ont.) told the co-chairs that he would like to have the committee recommendations approved in the House before he took further action, Sen. Carstairs said. Liberal MP and committee vice-chair Mauril Bélanger (Ottawa-Vanier, Ont.) tabled the report in June, but no MP has moved a motion for concurrence. The Senate approved the committee report, but Senate Speaker Noël Kinsella wanted to know that the committee is satisfied with Mr. Page's response to the report and recommendations before asking Treasury Board for the extra money, Sen. Carstairs told the committee.
"We do have, however, a crisis if one looks at the normal process for supplementary estimates," Sen. Carstairs said, noting supplementary estimates are usually submitted to Treasury Board by Sept. 30 and it may be too late to submit anything for the upcoming supplementary estimates B, to be voted on in December. The steering committee will be meet with the Speakers on Oct. 20 and could meet with Mr. Page as early as Oct. 22, said the co-chair.
Mr. Bélanger said he doesn't believe the House Speaker needs the House to adopt the report to proceed and said the steering committee—of which he is a member—will "presumably" be talking about that with the Speakers.
He said that the committee report contained a recommendation regarding assessing the office and its structure in two years and the independence concerns could be looked at then, or earlier if the Liberals form government.
"Two if not three of the opposition parties have some doubts with the current structure, but we sort of all decided, everyone decided to bide their time for now, in order to get this thing working because obviously, the change would likely require legislative amendments and those don't happen overnight but there is a desire that the PBO be able to function and work and keep producing the reports that they have been producing," Mr. Bélanger said.
cmunster@hilltimes.com
The Hill Times
