Evidence of meeting #4 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was report.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
If the government continues its current spending levels, when do you project the budget to be balanced?
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
Is that a trick question?
It will be a very long time. Again, the current status quo is not sustainable. The more immediate pressure for the government, again, looking at the economic forecast, is where we're going to be in years three, four and five, and whether the investments the government plans to make in the economy, in capital and in infrastructure, and the supports they intend to provide to people to retrain and move across new industries, are effective and are managed effectively.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
Under the previous prime minister, we were told the budgets would balance themselves. Does it concern you that under the current Prime Minister, we don't even talk about balancing budgets?
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
As the interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, given the mandate of our organization to promote fiscal transparency, I'd say the bigger concern for us is the current weakness or unevenness in fiscal transparency. Notwithstanding our work, it definitely undermines and hinders the work of parliamentarians.
There are some very weighty policy decisions that will need to be made very quickly over the coming months in a minority Parliament. The more information that is provided to all parliamentarians regarding the current fiscal context, the easier it will be for our organization or anyone to make decisions. More information shared more widely at a higher quality puts everybody further ahead.
Liberal
Pauline Rochefort Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have two final questions. I will quote a few headlines.
It was just a year ago that your predecessor, Monsieur Giroux, reported that the “federal government can spend $46 billion more a year and remain sustainable over the long term”, for every year until 2098, and remain fiscally sustainable.
How does this discussion square with that comment from last year?
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
I worked on that report. I was responsible for it, and a lot has changed over 12 months.
Liberal
Pauline Rochefort Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
I guess it would be fair to say that a lot can change within a year.
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
Yes, and I hope that over the next 12 months, all the current problems we have go away and we're back to where we were before.
Liberal
Pauline Rochefort Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
Positive parliamentary discussion can lead to such changes.
You're absolutely right, thank you. I very much appreciate your saying that.
On that note, really, I was delighted to read another headline. It said that our Prime Minister was very popular in New York at the UN assembly. There were more than “700 requests that flooded in from foreign leaders [and many actually from] CEOs [and] company representatives”.
We talk about indicators of confidence in our country. Does that serve in any way as you evaluate the confidence we have in our country?
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
Business confidence is one of the key variables we consider as part of our macroeconomic model. Obviously, there's the confidence that both external entrepreneurs and CEOs have. Perhaps more importantly is the confidence that individual Canadians have to step up and start a small business. Those who have a small business can take the next step to borrow additional money, make investments and hire people. That's a critical factor that we pay a lot of attention to in terms of economic growth.
Liberal
Pauline Rochefort Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
Thank you very much for those comments.
That's all for me, thank you.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Thank you very much for being here, all of you.
I have one question, though.
I was also reading a headline about a wonderful young man named Louis Jacques, who was running across the country to P.E.I. to raise money for St. Joe's Supper Table. Is he any relation?
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
Yes, that would be my son.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
I'm sorry. I had to put that on the record.
Thanks, everyone, for being with us.
Very quickly, we need the first tranche of witnesses for Canada Post. Please have them in by October 7. I suspect that we can add some later, but please...so we can get our clerk working on it.
We need recommendations for the consul general report. Have them in by next Thursday. We're not here on Tuesday, of course. We're starting the consul general report on Thursday. Have your recommendations in to the analysts. They can always be revised. It would be nice if we had them in, because quite often there is overlap. We can build recommendations together.
The last point is that the procurement ombudsman we were going to have in just put out the report. I'm sure everyone saw the draft report. It's not public yet. We'll wait until it's actually tabled and made public before we bring him in to brief us and go over the report. For those who weren't here last time, it was a report generally commissioned, for lack of better words, by this committee.
Liberal
Pauline Rochefort Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
I'm not sure if I'm allowed to make a point of order at this point.
Liberal
Pauline Rochefort Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
Simply, for me, I find the best practice in all meetings is to be able to receive reports at least 24 hours ahead. If you look at all organizations, they have—
Liberal
Pauline Rochefort Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
That would be today's report from our Parliamentary Budget Officer.
For me, I find that receiving no notice.... I was in meetings all day. I arrived at my desk, and the report was there. I find that it's unfair and that it's not a proper meeting procedure to not be given sufficient notice.
Conservative
Liberal