While all eyes have been on the austerity measures in the 2012 budget, the PBO finds that cuts and budget freezes from 2010 to this year double the belt-tightening that departments are dealing with.
At the same time, the battle for information between the government and the PBO has turned up a notch.
Late last week, the government sent parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page a letter refusing to release details of budget cuts. Page said the letter, which his office will publish online today, cites privacy provisions in union contracts to say details cannot be released until long after the budget has been voted on.
Page said those same unions have told him they have no problem with details of cuts being released as long as individuals are not named. Page is now working on a public response letter.
“My view is that parliamentarians absolutely need this information sooner rather than later,” Page said Monday in an interview with The Chronicle Herald.
“It’s just not right for public servants or even the government to say ‘We can’t give it to you.’”
Page said parliamentarians will have to vote on the budget and spending bills without knowing how departments are coping with spending cuts. He said the government is acting like it, rather than Parliament, has ultimate control over the public purse.
“The president of the Treasury Board (Tony Clement) said, ‘You’ll have to wait maybe as long as a year.’ We’re saying, ‘Well, that’s ridiculous. Restraint is happening now.’”
While the fight for information will continue over the coming weeks, the Parliamentary Budget Office was able to get new details for its report released Monday.
The report totally reframes the government’s spending cuts as starting in 2010. The Conservatives announced in this year’s budget they would cut $5.2 billion and 19,200 jobs over the next three years.
But while the last two budgets contained stimulus, they also had underlying long-term cuts that are now starting to be felt. The PBO reports that when the cuts are added together, the government is actually chopping twice as much — $10.8 billion from the budget and 26,800 jobs.
As an example, Fisheries and Oceans is facing $79.3 million in cuts this year. But those cuts are on top of $56.8 million already announced, as well as a multi-year budget freeze.
Top-level data on the cuts is coming in slowly but surely. The Parliamentary Budget Office asked all departments to break down funding for main programs (for Fisheries and Oceans, this would include things like funding for search and rescue and icebreaking). Most have complied but one-third of departments and agencies refused.
On the request for specifics of how departments are handling program cuts, almost no one has answered.
The Finance Department plans to meet its $5.2 billion in savings from this year’s budget with a $1.1-billion cut to small grants and contributions (excluding major transfers like equalization), $1.8 billion in lower staffing costs and $2.3 billion in other operating savings.
The PBO says that last category, which makes up 46 per cent of all of this year’s cuts, remains largely a mystery.
Original Article
Source: the chronicle herald
Author: PAUL McLEOD
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