Thank you, Mr. Chair.
When we received notice of this, I did some research into it. I tend to agree completely with our chair. It has been explained on many occasions, but since we've had several motions and indications of motions being proposed at this committee to look into the mandate of the budget officer, I would like to set the record straight on these motions: they are entirely outside the mandate of this committee.
The Standing Joint Committee on the Library of Parliament is currently studying these matters. I would like to inform you of what has been testimony at this library committee.
On March 12, Mr. William Young, the Parliamentary Librarian, stated this before committee:
A plain reading of the relevant statutory provisions within the Parliament of Canada Act shows that the PBO is an officer of the library and is subject to the control and management of the librarian and not a stand-alone office.
In response to a question from Monsieur Laforest, which was premised on a 30% cut in the PBO budget, Mr. Young went on to say:
There was no budget cut for the Parliamentary Budget Officer. He received the same increase as the rest of the library received. It was not reduced by 30%. There was what I'd call a notional allocation. There was no authorization for any amount of money.... Quite frankly, the Parliamentary Budget Officer was not treated any differently from any other service head in the Library of Parliament.
At the meeting of the library committee on Thursday, March 26, Mr. Joe Wild from Treasury Board further informed the committee of the following:
As I just noted, the legislation expressly states that the research and analysis provided to parliamentarians by the PBO is to be independent. The Library of Parliament reports through the Parliamentary Librarian to the speakers of the House and Senate, and its direction and management are completely independent from the executive, meaning the government. This means that the Treasury Board Secretariat and other central agencies play no role in determining how the library and its offices, including the PBO, operate or perform their mandates. The estimates for the library are prepared by the Parliamentary Librarian, approved by the speakers of the House and Senate. They are then transmitted to the president of the Treasury Board, who tables them in Parliament, and nothing more.
Mr. Chair, the motion before us asks the government to do what it expressly is not allowed to do--namely, set the budget of a division of the Library of Parliament. This would be an intrusion of the executive into the business of Parliament and would call into question the independence of the Parliamentary Budget Officer and, by extension, the Library of Parliament.
I respectfully submit to all honourable members that this matter be taken up with the librarian, and the librarian only.
Thank you.