Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
I appreciate the opportunity to meet with the committee today and to provide you with a status report on our efforts to establish a parliamentary budget officer within the Library of Parliament.
I have invited Jacques Sabourin, Acting Director General, Parliamentary Information and Research Service,
and Allan Darling, special advisor on the parliamentary budget officer. I will tell you that Allan was a former deputy secretary to cabinet, deputy secretary of the Treasury Board, and, most recently, he has been working with the World Bank in advising developing nations on their budgetary and fiscal requirements.
We're here today to listen to your advice and recommendations regarding the organization and work of the PBO, and my colleagues will help me answer any questions you may have.
In my efforts to establish the parliamentary budget officer, I have tried to be consistent in following four guiding principles:
1) To implement the law as set out in the Parliament of Canada Act;
2) To provide the non-partisan service to parliamentarians that has been, and continues to be, the hallmark of the Library of Parliament for over 130 years;
3) To strengthen Parliament's institutional capacity to hold government to account—in this case, by giving Parliament access to additional expertise on economic and fiscal issues;
4) To ensure that parliamentarians continue to receive the best possible service from the whole Library.
It is important to note, above all, that our efforts have been guided by the legislation and our mandate to establish an office that is independent and non-partisan, providing services to both Houses and all parties.
You are all aware that the Library of Parliament plays a unique role in the provision of professional, non-partisan services to members of the House and to senators, and in support of your work. As this work evolves and adapts to change, the library must also evolve if it is to meet its overarching commitment to effectively serve Parliament and you, its clients.
Part of the library's evolution must be integrating the PBO within the organization to provide enhanced advice and analysis on the state of the economy, the nation's finances, and the expenditures of government. Locating the officer within the Library of Parliament means that members of the House and senators can rest assured that the officer will function as their servant, operating within the library's mandated approach and professional ethos in its service to Parliament.
Appointing the officer and creating this capacity allows the library to build on the strong foundations of expertise we already have in place. It avoids duplication of effort or resources and provides generally for economies of scale wherever possible. In short, it provides us with an opportunity to strengthen our services to you.
While some of the functions associated with the officer will enhance the library's ability to do what it already does, there is an important new element—one that provides Parliament with a new dimension and value-added in exercising fully its role in overseeing the government's fiscal plan.
As you know, this means explaining the assumptions underlying that plan and assisting parliamentarians in asking relevant questions relating to the executive's economic and fiscal forecasts.
I do not think the PBO should provide an alternative fiscal forecast to the one produced by the Department of Finance. Several reputable Canadian forecasting firms already do this, and adding yet another forecast would not improve service to parliamentarians.
I foresee the PBO taking a lead role with parliamentarians to provide a much more strategic approach that would enhance parliamentarian's understanding of the underlying factors affecting fiscal forecasting and the reasons the executive is moving in a particular direction.
I anticipate that the work of the PBO would focus on higher-level analysis that would improve parliamentarians' understanding of alternative public policy options that might influence future government expenditures.
Members are aware of the assistance already provided by the research branch staff during your review of the expenditure estimates tabled by the government. I anticipate the PBO will provide leadership in developing initiatives to tailor the presentation of information on proposed expenditures to better reflect the specific interests of parliamentarians.
Costing proposals of interest to parliamentarians is another role currently performed by the library's research services. With the additional resources available to the PBO, I would anticipate a significant improvement in the transparency and credibility in this area.
When the PBO function was included in the Parliament of Canada Act, the Treasury Board provided for an annual budget to support the officer, and this currently sits at $2.7 million. Like any new operation, the PBO requires phasing in, and the library's estimates for 2008-09 include $1.6 million of the total allocation for the initial implementation of these new services to Parliament.
Under the leadership of the officer we foresee building capacity in two distinct areas. First is an economic and fiscal analysis capacity that will be staffed by experts in economic modelling and fiscal forecasting. This will enable parliamentarians to obtain access to independent analysis of the state of the economy.
The second capacity, expenditure analysis, will provide broader expertise on the government's expenditure program. This will be integrated into our current work for all parliamentary committees and the staff resources that are currently allocated to them. Individual requests from parliamentarians or committees for costing proposals or costing of legislation will be prepared by the PBO, again in cooperation with our current research services staff.
The amended Parliament of Canada Act, subsection 79.1(3), provides that the Governor in Council may select the parliamentary budget officer from a list of three names submitted in confidence by a high level committee formed and chaired by the parliamentary librarian through the leader of the government in the House of Commons.
Based on the interpretation of the PBO mandate and the approach to implementing it that I have outlined for you, a job description for the officer was forwarded for approval and classification to the Privy Council Office in December 2006.
I convened a discussion group in January 2007, whose members were nominated by the Canadian Association of Former Parliamentarians and represented all parties in both Houses. They assisted greatly in defining the skills and experience that candidates should possess to serve Parliament well and interact effectively with parliamentarians.
In late July 2007, I received notification that the position had been classified as a GCQ-5. This classification is roughly equivalent to an EX-3, normally a director general level in the public service.
Following a competitive bidding process, the library contracted with the executive search firm Ray & Berndtson on August 28, 2007. Led by their senior Ottawa partner, Michelle Richard, they conducted an exhaustive national search process for qualified candidates.
On November 30, 2007, I convened a blue ribbon selection panel committee, which was composed of Maria Barrados, the president of the Public Service Commission; Don Drummond, the senior vice-president and chief economist of the TD Bank; William G. Knight, former commissioner, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada and a nominee of the Canadian Association of Former Parliamentarians; and Allan Darling, with me here today, who is my special adviser on the PBO project.
As required by the statute, the selection committee reviewed eight of the 24 candidates who had been identified through the preliminary search process. At that time, the committee identified an additional six candidates to be approached for the position. The committee held interviews on December 20, 2007, and on its behalf I forwarded the committee's recommendations to the government House leader on December 21, 2007.
Throughout this process, I have benefited greatly from the comments and advice of the Honourable Peter Milliken, Speaker of the House of Commons, and the Honourable Noël Kinsella, Speaker of the Senate. As you know, they are jointly responsible for the operations of the Library of Parliament under my direction and therefore ultimately for the PBO.
Your invitation to appear before the committee obviously is a timely one. Selection of the PBO is a decision of the government, and I am currently waiting for the decision.
Thank you. We'd be happy to respond to any questions the committee may have.
I have two additional documents that I would like to have distributed, please. The first is a chronology of planning and implementation activities undertaken by the library to help highlight the steps that we have taken to fulfill our mandate, and the second is a report prepared for me by Ray & Berndtson on the recruitment process for the parliamentary budget officer.
