“What we can say is that the Treasury Board Secretariat provides ongoing guidance to departments and agencies to assist them in fulfilling their reporting obligations to Parliament and Canadians in a comprehensive, consistent, and coordinated manner,” said Treasury Board Secretariat spokesperson Theresa Knowles.
The PCO, headed by PCO Clerk Wayne Wouters, also declined to comment on whether it advised departments not to cooperate with the Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page’s most recent request for information. The PCO had recently quietly signaled to deputy ministers that they could release the information. But both top departments, along with more than 60 other departments and agencies, never responded to Mr. Page’s request for the spending cuts information by his Oct. 19 deadline.
“Departments are working with the PBO to provide accurate information, within his mandate. That process takes time,” said PCO spokesperson Raymond Rivet.
Liberal MP John McCallum (Markham-Unionville, Ont.) said that it’s likely instructions were coming out of the Prime Minister’s Office.
“Pretty well everything on the Conservative side ultimately comes out of the Prime Minister’s Office so it’s my guess that the Prime Minister’s Office is orchestrating this,” he said.
“It is the responsibility of departments to respond to the request,” said PMO director of communications Andrew MacDougall in an email to The Hill Times Oct. 26.
He added that it was his understanding that departments were now in the process of complying with the information request.
Mr. Page has threatened to take the government to Federal Court.
NDP MP Linda Duncan (Edmonton Strathcona, Alta.) said “it’s just beyond the realm of common sense” that the government would let the situation get so close to legal action.
Ms. Duncan said she hopes the Federal Court would expedite any court action.
The PBO announced on Oct. 24 that it would be seeking a new legal opinion on the scope of its mandate before heading to the Federal Court to get the information it wants for Parliament. It has retained constitutional expert Joseph Magnet who wrote an opinion on the PBO’s right to free and timely access to information earlier this year.
“When the PBO obtained a legal opinion on his power of direct request, it was not apparent his mandate would also be challenged. While early in his term, the PBO received legal advice on his mandate’s scope and has been acting accordingly, these fresh challenges have prompted him to seek a comprehensive legal opinion. The PBO will not take any further action prior to receiving this opinion, which will be released as soon as possible,” said the office in a statement.
The PBO gave departments until Oct. 19 to provide information, and 43 departments committed to responding.
At the time, Mr. Page said that a number of departments were ready and waiting to give him the information. In the end, only one more department, the Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat complied with the request.
More than 60 departments and agencies, including Treasury Board Secretariat, Privy Council Office, Finance, and the largest departments in government, have refused to comply with his repeated information requests. There are 19 smaller or more independent organizations that have complied.
“It’s fitting with their mentality about the role of Parliament. Essentially what it comes down to is they want to throw as many obstacles in the way as possible to duly elected officials to scrutinize their spending,” said Ms. Duncan, adding that only the government knows what provoked the turnabout.
“What is doubly-disturbing is that it’s key federal departments: Finance, Foreign Affairs, Immigration, Treasury Board, even the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, for heaven’s sake,” she said.
Mr. McCallum said he isn’t sure that the information will “ever see the light of day.”
Meanwhile, Ms. Duncan said the Conservatives could be planning to make unilateral changes to the post as Mr. Page’s term winds down in March 2013.
“They are trying to re-engineer without amending his role. Our concern is that what they will do is unilaterally try to change his role, and then bring on board another PBO. What we would have preferred is that there be an open, public, review of the role and mandate of the PBO, the problems we’ve run into, what’s worked well, before a new person is hired to replace him,” explained Ms. Duncan.
The government recently sidestepped a suggestion in a consensus report from the House Government Operations Committee to study the budget office’s mandate to make sure it best serves Parliamentarians.
“A new PBO will be chosen within six months or so. It’s a natural time to reconsider his or her mandate, but I’m not surprised really, they don’t like any discussion of the Parliamentary Budget Officer,” said Mr. McCallum, who moved a motion that the House of Commons concur the committee’s entire report on Oct. 24. The House was adjourned before it came to a vote.
Conservative MP Mike Wallace (Burlington, Ont.), vice-chair of the House Government Operations Committee, said he doesn’t think the government is shutting the door on reviewing the PBO’s mandate.
“We recommended that it be our committee that does it, but they are saying, ‘No at this point it’s in the purview of the Joint Committee on the Library of Parliament. I didn’t read it as, ‘No, it isn’t going to be reviewed.’ I don’t know if it’s going to happen or not, but it’s not our call,” Mr. Wallace said.
The government continues to resist calls from the office to release the information. “Quite frankly it’s outside of Mr. Page’s mandate. He’s in now to looking into money that is not spent. … There has been a tendency on his part to try to expand his mandate into other areas for which he is not responsible,” said Finance Minister Jim Flaherty (Whitby-Oshawa, Ont.) on CTV’s Question Period Oct. 21.
That rationale is not sitting well with the opposition.
“The law clearly gives the PBO access to all government financial data, but Conservatives are hiding behind excuses worthy of a kindergarten playground, not of the Parliament of Canada,” said NDP Leader Tom Mulcair (Outremont, Que.) in Question Period on Oct. 24.
Mr. McCallum said that he thinks Mr. Page will likely win his court case if he does go that route, but it will take a long time. “The government might seek to delay or appeal until he’s gone, and then he could make it a condition of appointment of his successor that he would drop it,” he explained.
He also said the opportunity to make the PBO independent has likely passed for now.
“Probably, until there is a new government. But don’t forget that Kevin Page will be gone soon, so the Conservatives will control who is the new appointee, and if they choose someone they are comfortable with, it’s possible they would be comfortable making him an officer of Parliament, although I doubt it,” Mr. McCallum said.
Liberal MP Scott Brison (Kings-Hants, N.S.), his party’s finance critic, said, “The government would certainly prefer a lapdog to a watchdog.”
When the position of Parliamentary Budget Officer was first introduced in the Conservative’s accountability act in 2006, the Bloc Quebecois proposed to make the office more independent by housing it with the Auditor General, instead of within the Library of Parliament, and much like the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development.
“In this bill, the position of Parliamentary budget officer is an empty shell. This person reports to the Library of Parliament. He is not given the power to access essential information,” said then-BQ finance critic Yvan Loubier in 2006.
During a time of minority government, the amendment was voted down by the Conservatives, NDP and Liberals on the legislative committee tasked with reviewing the act.
“I think the best position for him is as an officer of Parliament,” said Mr. McCallum.
The NDP has also supported an independent budget officer, reporting directly to Parliament, and has introduced a series of private members’ bills to that end.
Conservative MP John Williamson (New Brunswick Southwest, N.B.) former national director of the Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation, said that he supported the creation of the PBO and it’s important that the government be transparent about its finances.
He added that it is “worrisome” that the PBO is on the brink of taking the government to court.
“At the same time, the government I think has an obligation to report to Parliament first and foremost…I don’t think the Parliamentary Budget Office should be able to skip any of that just because his office thinks they are entitled to information,” he explained.
NDP MP Guy Caron (Rimouski-Neigette-Témiscouata-Les Basques, Que.) said it’s a “sad day when the Parliamentary Budget Officer has to go to court because Conservatives are hiding information.”
Mr. Williamson said that when he worked at the CTF, he used existing documents like the reports on plans and priorities, departmental performance reports and the estimates to understand the government’s fiscal plans and forecasts.
“My concern is his requests now involve the amount of specific detailed information he is seeking. I am not convinced that it’s his job to measure the acceptability or to make judgments about some of the decisions the government has made with respect to restraint and cut backs,” he said of the PBO.
“We have an auditor general who goes through and evaluates the government’s performance when it comes to its programs and its spending of tax dollars. What I count on the Parliamentary Budget Officer to do is to ensure the broad numbers of the government are accurate,” he explained.
Ms. Duncan said that Mr. Page’s request is inside his mandate.
“This isn’t just sort of a one-off, he has this mandate through law and he has the full right and power to request this information. Therefore those departments and agencies are obligated to provide this information in a fulsome and timely manner,” she said.
“I am frankly dumbfounded at the behaviour of the head of the Treasury Board and the Minster of Finance, and the way that they are handling this matter,” she added. “The bigger question is, what are they hiding?”
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: JESSICA BRUNO
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