Finance committee  Our assumption is that this would be effectively negating a tax increase. So by holding premium rates constant, which the government is doing.... And we actually support that. We think it's a wise measure to do at the time, so we're not against the measure, but we think it's an a

Finance committee  It's absolutely the way to look at it, and to look at the contributions of all governments and track their contributions toward the creation of the stimulus package so that all parliamentarians can monitor that implementation. We're effectively implementing the federal budget, bu

Finance committee  Certainly. Thank you again for your support. At the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer we certainly see our role as supporting all parliamentarians, all of Parliament, all parties. When we do our work in the context of independence, we see us supporting Canadians in that

Finance committee  We undertook a study that looks at the different proposals contained in the budget, with respect to motions of... timely, temporary, and targeted. We will release that report within the next few weeks. We will examine all the key spending measures.

Finance committee  In my opinion, it is very difficult for Canada to perform differently than the United States. The United States has entered into a period of significant economic weakness which has a big impact on the Canadian economy. However, Canada's fundamentals are certainly stronger than th

Finance committee  It is possible to analyze the economic stimulus plan proposed by the government in Budget 2009 and compare it to the American package. The American proposals are much broader in scope than those of our government, but the American economy is much weaker. The American economy is

Finance committee  You're quite right that the labour market has probably shocked a lot of people, particularly in the fourth quarter of 2008, in that the numbers turned much weaker. We've seen pretty much full employment level loss since the spring of 2008, and then we saw fairly significant decli

Finance committee  My understanding of the government's measures, sir, is that at the end of the two-year period, at the end of 2010, the fiscal stimulus measures that would be put in, roughly $40 billion, would add to the level of GDP of 1.4% and it would add in ongoing terms 140,000 net term jobs

Finance committee  Thank you very much. And thank you, sir, for the support for the work of the office. As you noted, we think we can provide an accountability framework based on OECD best practices, with full transparency, on budget implementations. There are some best practices that have been ar

Finance committee  Thank you, Chair. I will start with some brief introductions. This is Mostafa Askari, assistant parliamentary budget officer. His focus is on economic and fiscal outlook related issues. He was the chief architect of the paper we're going to discuss today. Sahir Khan is the

Government Operations committee  This is a big business-model-type decision that we're grappling with right now. How do we set priorities? How do we work with the Library of Parliament? How do we work with the Auditor General as well, so that we make the best use of available resources? Having spoken a few tim

Government Operations committee  Since March 25, I have had only two opportunities to meet with the Auditor General.

Government Operations committee  Yes, we will work together collaboratively.

Government Operations committee  I think the question of lapses in budgets and budgetary authority is actually a big issue. Could the role of the parliamentary budget officer actually bring transparency to some of the issues that underlie the budgetary lapse? I think, just as background, in terms of numbers that

Government Operations committee  I think that 25% is a good percentage.