Yes, there is a choice to be made there. You could go the library research branch route. They have very competent professionals who could give good support to the committee. On the other hand, we created the Parliamentary Budget Officer as part of the amendment to the Federal Accountability Act, and it was thrown in without a lot of care and attention being given to defining its role clearly.
I think the office deserves its own statute, which would set forth its mandate. Included in its mandate would be to assist a committee or committees with the review of the estimates. I think the Parliamentary Budget Officer, Mr. Page, has been drawn into cross-party battles over various things and the office has become subject to the accusation that it doesn't perform in a neutral way, in a way that the library is meant to do and the research branch of the library is meant to do. It's taking sides in partisan controversies. Those are the allegations against the PBO.
So I think if you had a division within the PBO.... He has seven or eight people, I think, in his operations in total. You would probably have to add a few more. But the committee that I'm proposing, or some other committee, would then have the Parliamentary Budget Officer report directly to it, and it would give him or her instructions about what areas you would like to see examined. Then he would carry out those orders, and you could hold him accountable for delivering relevant, useful, balanced, timely reports to the committee.
At the present time, the PBO has no parliamentary home, so far as I can see. The Library of Parliament is really not the appropriate home for the PBO. So I think it is an institution we've created, along with a number of other officers of Parliament, and it is meant to come to the aid of members of Parliament, and I think you need the help.