Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Budget Officer uses the same departmental budget and economic forecasts.
The mandate of the Parliamentary Budget Officer is to provide independent analyses to Parliament on the state of the nation's finances, and he has a legislative right to access all information necessary to fulfill his responsibilities. Despite repeated requests for information, the finance minister has refused, claiming cabinet confidentiality, and now Conservative MPs are issuing veiled threats that the Parliamentary Budget Officer's budget will be cut.
Why will the government not respect the law and give the Parliamentary Budget Officer access to all the information he needs to do his job?