Government Operations committee  That's a very good question. If I understand it properly, it's a question of getting the balance right, in my view. It's a question of how we operate in a democracy in areas of public money, where we have a parliamentary system with a government that governs and a parliament that

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and all the very best to the members of the committee.

Government Operations committee  I think there are a couple of reasons why that's the case. You should know that when the parliamentary budget office was first instituted, I wasn't enthusiastic. I was a bit skeptical at the beginning because I saw the Congressional Budget Office, and I had been in the United Sta

Government Operations committee  That's a very good question, and it really links quite closely to John Williams's proposal in a previous parliamentary committee, to see whether or not one could allow committees to look at reallocations within the vote and not to have that deemed a confidence question. In other

Government Operations committee  That's a very good question, and I think it deserves a good analysis. I haven't done that analysis, but I do know that the sentiment of many of the recommendations has been very similar. In many respects, they have advocated greater support for the committees and sustained suppor

Government Operations committee  Right now he has no statutory power to get information, as I understand it. If one were to amend the act and look at his being a full agent of Parliament, it's not inconceivable that one could also consider greater access, through statute, for the Parliamentary Budget Officer, as

Government Operations committee  I won't comment on the last question.

Government Operations committee  I think it is, but it may also be the case that you want to supplement the process by having this committee, government operations and estimates, look at one or two departments, at something that maybe goes horizontally across them. For example, there's search and rescue. I'm p

Government Operations committee  Thank you. You had a lot of experience in dealing with these matters. On the political side, I think there is a broader concern one needs to be sensitive to. I'll call it the politico-economic one, and that is the business cycle and the sensitivity of being able to bring down

Government Operations committee  On the question of the Auditor General, we have a system where Parliament is involved in three areas when it comes to public money. One is before the fact, and that's in the finance committee, in its pre-budget consultations and discussions. That has worked very interestingly. In

Government Operations committee  I think you need the committees and you need an “s” on the end of “committee”. One committee cannot do it all. The Government of Canada is so vast, so large, has so much expenditure, so much complexity, all of this can't be done. One thing I've learned, having spent 30 years in

Government Operations committee  In an ideal world I think it would be better not to use this word “deemed”. I think deemed puts a bitter taste in people's mouths, a certain perception of losing things. On the other hand, Parliament needs to move on with its work. I think if committees were to take a focused a

Government Operations committee  That's a very good and very difficult question. I think one has to look at the broader historical perspective. On the one hand, in modern budgeting there has been a diminished role for legislatures over a period of time. If we go back to the Magna Carta, back to the king, and see

Government Operations committee  There are a lot of documents that Parliament receives, over a thousand documents a year. I know there's frustration with so many documents and that one might feel overloaded with too much information. I know that if I had a thousand students and had to examine a thousand papers

Government Operations committee  That's a tricky question. I think the best and most honest answer would come if the committee were to call as witnesses the Deputy Minister of Finance and the Secretary of the Treasury Board to ask that question. I think that will be important. I think officials from both those a