Finance committee  Mr. Chair, you put it better than I did.

Finance committee  This is a new area, so it's not possible to understand exactly how much business will arise until it actually occurs. We have worried about issues around workload. In the legislation there are a couple of measures in place to try to reduce the workload surge that might occur. I

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, I'm not sure I have an answer that will satisfy the honourable member. The role of the parliamentary budget officer is to provide neutral and objective economic and fiscal analysis, including costing, to help members of Parliament do their job holding the government t

Finance committee  No, I don't think I can add much to that. As always, PCO tried to do its best work.

Finance committee  That is another very interesting question, Mr. Chair. I would just say that, as always, we try to learn from every experience we've had, and we're learning from this one.

Finance committee  Section 79.4 includes a very significant expansion in the PBO's access to information. There are some important changes from the status quo. One of the important changes is that currently what PBO has access to is economic and fiscal data. That's what the legislation says. Now it

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, if this is put into legislation, it is a requirement for deputies and departments to follow the law, so they will need to provide this information.

Finance committee  The intent of the legislation is to give the PBO much wider information access so that that problem doesn't occur.

Finance committee  It's not for me to allow or not allow, Mr. Chair. On the issue of the recourse the PBO has, if they are not getting the information they feel they are entitled to, the first recourse should be Parliament. As an officer of Parliament, the recourse should be to Parliament. Beyon

Finance committee  It is put in the legislation to expand information access. The way it should work is that people follow the legislation—departments, the PBO—and information flows, and there is no issue. That should happen 99% of the time. In areas where there is a dispute, there should be an a

Finance committee  It could take lots of forms. It could take this committee's stating their wish for the information directly; it could be an MP; it could be speaking with the minister, whose department it is. It could take lots of forms, far short of contempt of Parliament.

Finance committee  Mr. Dusseault's interpretation is correct. That's in fact what the bill says. His recourse, though, isn't limited as an MP. You could make a broader request in committee, let's say, on something unrelated to a PMB. So you could work through committee. The other approach is that y

Finance committee  That's correct.

Finance committee  That's correct.

Finance committee  You're stating your personal view?