Mr. Chair, this amendment goes to the issue that I think has been raised quite a lot. Members are familiar with the concerns of the parliamentary budget office and officer that the sections of this act that relate to the parliamentary budget office have put the independence of the office much more in doubt than we had expected of this new government.
My amendment deals with the administrative control of the PBO and seeks to reduce the administrative control of the PBO by the Speakers of the Houses of Parliament. I propose deleting lines 12 to 25, as they're found at page 80 under proposed subsections 79.12(1) and 79.12(2), to increase the independence of the PBO. The PBO itself in their brief described what would happen if you were looking at a specific project and there was a spending threshold you really needed to access in terms of the ability to buy data and models. Even having administrative control of spending powers over the PBO by the Speakers is an intrusion into the independence of the parliamentary budget office as an independent officer of Parliament.