As the first person to hold the position of PBO, the 55-year-old Page has taken his mandate to provide MPs with an independent look at the federal government’s budgets and spending very seriously. His unvarnished reports have put him in conflict with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government over deficit projections, F-35 fighter jet costs, the need to change Old Age Security and prison price tags.
The government seems in no hurry to find a replacement, which has raised concerns about whether anyone will be in a position to provide an objective rundown on Ottawa’s most important financial event of the year — the budget in March.
“The risks are much higher now that there won’t be somebody in place” when he leaves his post on March 25, Page told the Star. “It’s really down to two months now and they haven’t even really started a process.”
NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair wrote to Harper requesting Page be given an extension of his five-year term to prepare analysis of the 2013 budget. “For the sake of accountability, I hope you will agree to ask Mr. Page to stay on until his replacement is found,” Mulcair wrote.
Opposition MPs say that, based on past appointments of a similar nature, the process for finding a new PBO is months behind schedule.
The government is saying little.
“The position will be filled in due course following a thorough process” of selection, said a spokesperson for Treasury Board Minister Tony Clement. The cabinet makes the final choice based on a list of contenders compiled by the Library of Parliament, the agency responsible for the PBO.
Page’s job was established in 2006 by Harper’s Conservatives, who in opposition accused the Liberals of misleading the public about Ottawa’s finances to inflate their fiscal achievements.
But it’s widely thought that the Tories got more than they anticipated with Page. Clement has accused him of overstepping his mandate and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty scorned Page’s reports as “unbelievable, unreliable and incredible.”
After five years of this open feuding, it’s expected the Conservatives will defang the PBO, either by altering the mandate or chopping the $2.8-million budget.
Liberal MP and treasury board critic John McCallum said he’s not even sure the government will name a successor to Page.
“It could be in the interests of the government not to have a PBO any more, because we know Mr. Harper is a very controlling prime minister who wants all the power in his office,” McCallum said. “And if you have a PBO, you disperse some of that power and that is not something the government likes.”
However, Page said the Library of Parliament, while slow off the mark, has begun recruiting a replacement. And he doubts the Conservatives would leave his post vacant, given the body of work his office has compiled in the past five years and the PBO’s extensive effort to make more budget information available to MPs and the public.
“I hope people see that there is value in having this type of office,” he said.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Les Whittington
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