moved for leave to introduce Bill C-476, An Act to amend the Parliament of Canada Act (Parliamentary Budget Officer).
Mr. Speaker, this enactment provides for the appointment of the Parliamentary Budget Officer as an officer of Parliament.
This enactment provides for the appointment of the Parliamentary Budget Officer as an officer of Parliament.
Several years ago when the Conservative Party was in opposition, it told the Canadian public it believed in accountability. This was supposed to be one of the answers to a long-standing problem that had been posed by a series of Liberal governments that refused to give people real numbers on the budget. We got an extraordinary Parliamentary Budget Officer. Unfortunately, he has been muzzled ever since by the Conservatives, has been shut down and has had his budget reduced.
We want to ensure that people understand this is a priority for the NDP, but we do not want to wait for the formation of the first NDP government in 2015 to bring it in. We want to ensure it is in place right away, based on the model of the Congressional Budget Office in the United States.
We believe it is a model that should be put in place. When we form the government in 2015, we hope that the official opposition, whichever party may form it, will have a Parliamentary Budget Officer who is free to do his or her work, worthy of his or her role and able to provide real information to parliamentarians on behalf of the Canadians who have contributed the funds that have to be examined here for budgetary purposes.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)