And as soon as he uttered the word, his office began a pool to predict when the Parliamentary Budget Officer would be fired.
The word was “yes.” The question he was asked was whether he believed the government purposely withheld information so Canadians would not know the full cost of the aircraft.
Page did not believe he overstepped his mandate, but others did.
But when the firing did not come, the ferociously independent fiscal watchdog saw a marvelous opportunity lost.
“It would have been great to have been fired,’’ he said, without a second of hesitation over lunch this week.
“I’d say it again.’’
Government retribution would have brought the issue directly into the public eye, Page believed, and it would be final and loud vindication for his contention that the true F-35 costs were never brought to Parliament or the public.
But is there a market in Conservative-run Ottawa for martyrs?
“I don’t have to work in this town. I could go up to Fort McMurray and work,’’ he said.
In a town where dissenting advice is routinely stifled, where a UN envoy is lectured then given the bum’s rush out of town, Page is still standing.
He believes in the integrity of his office and the position, created by Stephen Harper because the prime minister saw the need for the government to be “genuinely accountable” for taxpayers’ dollars.
Page is the man who provides independent — emphasis on that word — analysis to Parliament on the state of the nation’s finances, checks the government’s estimates and analyzes trends in the Canadian economy.
He is now, however, seen as just another member of the opposition to be smeared by the Harper government.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has called his work, “unbelievable, unreliable, incredible.’’
Conservatives routinely accuse him of bias, challenge his numbers and impugn his motives.
Page is adamant he would be doing the same type of work, with the same impartiality, regardless of who was governing, that he is not trying to hold this government’s feet to the fire.
He does no victory laps when he is (more often than not) proved correct.
Since they don’t like some of Page’s findings, Conservatives now stonewall him.
Page says the government’s lack of clarity on its public service cutbacks is “unacceptable” but when he asked departments for specifics on how budget cuts would affect programs, jobs and services, he was essentially told to go away.
He received responses from only eight of 83 federal departments and agencies, most of them inconsequential to the big picture, such as the National Battlefields Commission.
Still, these are rich times to be an independent financial watchdog.
Besides the $10 billion price discrepancy with the F-35s, this is a government that appears to have few clues about the ultimate cost of its cuts.
There are many predicting a tough summer for Conservative MPs who will return home to angry constituents learning government offices or parks or tourist attractions are closing.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives said Thursday that when the 19,200 jobs targeted in the March budget are added to previous Conservative budget freezes and strategic reviews, some 29,600 jobs will be eliminated over the next three years.
The Conservatives cannot put a price tag on their savings by pushing the age for Old Age Security to 67 and Page has argued the current system is sustainable.
They are unable — or unwilling — to provide any details on Employment Insurance revisions, promising new rules to be decided by cabinet, not Parliament, some time in the future.
In making its muddy case for the reform, Flaherty said this week, “there is no bad job.’’
He and his colleagues have done everything they can to make Page’s position “a bad job.’’
He has a year left in his five-year mandate and he is certain that there are others in his office who can confidently and competently take the helm.
Page said when he took the job, hardly anyone wanted it.
After five years of pummelling, who would want it under a government that makes independence an enemy?
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Tim Harper
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