I'd like to call this meeting to order. On behalf of the committee, I want to extend a warm welcome to our witnesses.
This meeting is broken down into two separate meetings, really. We're going to have a one-hour meeting with the new Parliamentary Budget Officer, Kevin Page. He's accompanied by Mr. William Young, the parliamentary librarian, and Mr. Sahir Khan, also with that particular office. I understand he is a new employee.
I have a few remarks by way of background, colleagues. The Parliamentary Budget Office was just established in the last several weeks. Authority for this position came from the federal Accountability Act. It's my belief that the impetus for the creation of this particular office came in part from some of the inconsistencies in federal forecasting that we've seen in the federal government. It's fair to say that over the past 10 years a lot of our revenue projections have been out by anywhere from $10 million to $15 million.
However, there were reports, particularly one by Mr. O’Neal, that confirmed some of the methodology used by the Department of Finance. In any event, Parliament does approve its budget and its spending allocations based upon certain assumptions delivered to Parliament by the Department of Finance, and if these assumptions do not prove to be correct, then of course the credibility of Parliament itself becomes eroded. On the other hand, it would be difficult to see a situation where we would replicate the Congressional Budget Office, as we see in the United States, or replicate the whole budgeting and forecasting apparatus that exists in the Department of Finance.
So the office has been established. Mr. Page is new on the job. I'm not so sure the job description has been totally defined. We're very pleased to have him with us for an hour. I understand both he and Mr. Young have opening statements, and I'm going to turn the floor over to them. Who will go first, gentlemen?
Mr. Young.