Roundup: Unexpected PBO problems

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As it turns out, there is another problem with the legislation that turns the Parliamentary Budget Officer into a full-fledged independent officer of parliament rather than his current status as being part of the Library of Parliament – it just so happens that they need to request any information from ministers themselves and not from civil servants. And nobody flagged this issue during study of the bill when it was before Parliament. Oops.

The concern from the PBO is that this could automatically politicise the work, as though that wasn’t already happening. After all, the PBO has become the opposition’s favourite cudgel to bash the government with, and shield by which to hid behind in order to insist that the report comes from the “objective, non-partisan” PBO and therefore is sacrosanct. Not to mention, that the creation of the office has meant that MPs have one more person to fob their homework off onto rather than doing it for themselves. After all, math is hard, and they have better things to do. So will the change have any material effect? Hard to say, given that the bureaucracy has been reluctant to share all of the requested information to date, and a government that is happy with the PBO one day can quickly become a government that is unhappy with him the next, and they could start insisting that all information is cabinet confidence. But they can already do that with information being requested by way of the civil service, so perhaps that’s a moot point. Only time will tell.

Meanwhile, there have been no efforts to rein in the scope of the PBO’s work, which could become a different sort of problem down the road. Ontario’s PBO-equivalent released a report yesterday that seemed to be a little outside of its mandate, leading to indications that perhaps there are problems brewing.

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/907646770301333504

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/907648125870866433

Good reads:

  • At the Liberal cabinet retreat in St. John’s, the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador raised the issue of the tax changes, and Trudeau wouldn’t budge.
  • Bill Morneau says that even with booming economic growth, they won’t rush to return to balance but will simply work on lowering the debt-to-GDP ratio.
  • While the US Congress approved the sale of Super Hornets to Canada, new details are emerging about the talks with Boeing, and how the UK has become involved.
  • At the Commons health committee, police said that July 2018 was too soon for them to be ready for the new marijuana enforcement regime.
  • At the same committee, representatives from Colorado and Washington also said that legalising marijuana has been pushing out the black market.
  • As of yesterday, 691 Canadians have been rescued from hurricane-hit Caribbean countries while people continue to gripe about slow responses.
  • The Royal Canadian Navy has opted to reject the War of 1812-themed names the Conservatives gave the new supply ships, and name them after the old supply ships.
  • Paul Wells talks to the new health minister about the opioid crisis, and doesn’t get many answers.
  • Susan Delacourt wonders if the backlash against proposed self-incorporated tax changes could be Trudeau’s “GST moment,” hearkening back to Mulroney’s days.
  • My column checks in on the state of the Independent Senators Group in advance of the return of Parliament (and which senator has thrown his name in to lead it).

Odds and ends:

Former Liberal deputy prime minister, cabinet minister and one-time Leader of the Government in the Senate, Allan MacEachen, passed away.

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