Watchdog fires back at Tories

OTTAWA — Canada’s fiscal watchdog fired back at the Conservative government, saying their recent attack against him is baseless and could even be an attempt to stop him from highlighting broken Tory promises.

Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page — who’s expected to provide non-partisan analysis on federal spending — was under attack this week after it was revealed that he was scheduled to speak at a Liberal fundraising event in Nanaimo, B.C.

A letter from Conservative strategists to supporters sent Wednesday said Page made “a major lapse in judgment” when he accepted the invitation.

Page insisted he was unaware of the partisan nature of the event, and the Conservative criticism was crafted without all the facts. “Maybe (the Conservatives) don’t like the fact that I’m talking about fiscal sustainability. But we’re going to continue to do it,” he said Thursday after speaking to economists in Winnipeg.

“Where’s the error in judgment? Maybe the error in judgment is the fact that they have not produced a fiscal sustainability report... If their issues are something else, if they don’t like us talking about fiscal sustainability, which is something they promised to produce in 2007, that’s different. But we think it’s fundamental for us to go out and speak with people.”
Page’s office started producing fiscal sustainability reports — analyses of whether government spending patterns can continue without compromising the ability to serve the public — following the government’s failure to do so despite its 2007 promise.

At its most basic level, however, the attack is based on false information, Page said.

“I was going out based on the original agreement to speak at a university at an open, non-partisan event. That was the commitment,” he said Thursday evening after speaking to business economists in Winnipeg about the sustainability.

Page’s office cancelled the event after becoming aware that a B.C.-based group of young Liberals was hosting the event and raising funds for the Liberal party.

“We didn’t participate in a political event, nor would we ever, and we haven’t,” he said.

In spite of the criticisms, Page will continue the speaking schedule that will take him to Alberta, Ontario and Prince Edward Island in the coming weeks.

“This kind of work we do, when we go to places, whether it’s Nanaimo, or today it’s Winnipeg, or in a couple of weeks in Charlottetown... this is a 21st century model of the way you work,” he said. “You do analysis, get the analysis peer reviewed and present the analysis so people can continue to scrutinize it... When the Conservatives get the facts, hopefully this will just go away.”

Origin
Source: Global