As the parliamentary secretary to the President of the Treasury Board, I want to emphasize that I'm very interested in the subject of this motion, but I do not believe it is a matter properly dealt with by this committee. The public accounts committee looks into the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of government programs and ensures that government is accountable to Parliament regarding its administrative practices.
This motion asks the committee to call the Parliamentary Budget Officer before us to discuss his role, specifically his independence. It does not ask him to appear regarding his work on the budget or on the costs of the Afghanistan mission, for example, or any of his work that would fall under the mandate of public accounts. I submit that it is not in the mandate of this committee to look into the mandate of the Parliamentary Budget Officer. The PBO's mandate stems from the Accountability Act, which places the PBO within the Library of Parliament. It falls outside of the mandate of this committee to examine the internal operations of the Library of Parliament. There is a committee that was created in order to examine the kind of issue that is raised by this motion.
I would like to state again that I find this to be a very important topic, which deserves proper study. However, that study is more properly dealt with by the standing joint committee on the library.