In a biting critique of the government to be published in Inside Policy magazine, former bureaucrats Scott Clark and Peter DeVries outline a troubling pattern of actions taken by the governing Conservatives since they took office several years ago.
They blast Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government for keeping internal budget records secret, for designing a system that means MPs don’t know what they are approving when they vote on billions in spending, for engaging in a useless war with the parliamentary budget officer, and for acting disgracefully through its omnibus budget bills.
“During the 2006 election, the Conservative Party promised greater transparency and accountability in budget planning,” they write. “Unfortunately, this has not turned out to be the case.”
“Budget documents now contain less economic and fiscal data than in any budget over the previous twenty-five years.”
Moreover, they complain the government blocks efforts to obtain this data through the Access to Information Act, claiming that the records constitute “cabinet confidence.”
“For some reason the [finance] minister seems more intent on not providing the public with information, rather than engaging Canadians in discussion on critical policy issues.”
The criticism comes just weeks before Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is to introduce his next budget. The minister said last week he is determined to eliminate the deficit by 2015 — the year when voters go to the polls — and he hinted this might require him in the upcoming budget to close tax loopholes and force federal departments to further slash their spending.
The forthcoming Inside Policy article is particularly significant because its authors are experts with deep knowledge of how the finance department works.
Clark was associate deputy minister from 1994 to 1997 and was the department’s deputy minister from 1997 to 2000. DeVries was director of fiscal policy in the finance department from 1990 to 2005.
“It is now recognized by most observers of the federal budget process that the integrity and credibility of the process has been seriously eroded in recent years,” they write.
Under the Tories, less information is provided to Canadians than under previous Liberal and Conservative governments, they conclude.
“Canadians should be concerned not just with the erosion of Parliament’s authority, but also ultimately with their own ability to hold the government to account for its actions.”
Among the most serious problems:
Detailed annual spending estimates are now introduced in Parliament before a budget, making them less accurate and leading to a situation where MPs don’t really know what they are doing when they vote to approve expenditures worth billions of dollars.
Scott and DeVries urge Flaherty to flip back to the traditional process: Introduce a budget by mid-February so that it can be followed by spending estimates.
“There is an urgent need to restore the role of Parliament and its committees in assessing, reviewing, and approving proposed legislation,” they write.
In the 2006 election, the Tories promised to create a parliamentary budget office. But once in office, they refused to provide the PBO with the data it needs, and have attacked its leader, Kevin Page.
Clark and DeVries write that the PBO has been right in all of its “disagreements” with the government.
“These illogical fights with the PBO inevitably end up making the government look like it has something to hide, has not done the analysis, and cannot be trusted. Both the credibility of the minister of finance and the credibility of the government have suffered as a result.”
For his 2012 budget, Flaherty introduced two controversial “omnibus bills” that were each several hundred pages long and contained policy changes which critics said had nothing to do with the budget. Flaherty was accused to trying to jam contentious changes throughout without sufficient review by MPs.
Clark and DeVries said the bills were “a disgrace and an insult to Parliament and to Canadians” and have undermined the budgetary process.
“Little information is now provided in the budget, so it has become impossible in reading the budget documents to fully understand what the government is actually proposing to do. There is a clear lack of transparency and accountability.”
Source: news.nationalpost.com
Author: Mark Kennedy
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