Mr. Chair and committee members, thank you for having invited us to appear before you today. We are pleased to be here to discuss our analysis related to your study on the current state of fiscal federalism in Canada. I'm here today with Mr. Robert Behrend, Advisor-Analyst in my office.
The act gives the parliamentary budget officer a mandate to provide impartial, independent analysis to help parliamentarians fulfil their constitutional role, which consists of holding the government accountable. In accordance with this mandate, my office has published reports on major federal transfers and the long-term sustainability of the different levels of government.
In September 2020, we published a report entitled "Federal Support through Major Transfers to Provincial and Territorial Governments'". This report examines federal support through major transfers to provincial and territorial governments from 2008-09 to 2018-19.
More recently, in July 2022, we published our annual “Fiscal Sustainability Report”, which provides an assessment of the sustainability of government finances over the long term for the federal government, subnational governments and public pension plans, including an analysis of our long-term projections for major federal transfers to other levels of government.
Additionally, our “Economic and Fiscal Outlook” in October 2022 presents our current projections for the Canada health transfer, the Canada social transfer and the equalization programs.
Robert and I will be pleased to respond to any questions you may have regarding our analysis of the major federal transfer programs or other PBO work.
Thank you.