Finance committee  The government tabled, in the platform, a commitment to reform the estimates process. The OGGO committee to which Mr. Page and I presented a plan for the reform estimates was accepted by the committee and approved by all parties. There is a blueprint for making this simpler, to h

Finance committee  Yes, sir. We haven't seen anything tabled by the government. We know that there is work going on behind the scenes with public servants, but our sense is that this is the type of work that, to some extent, has to be done in front of the clients, which are these committees and th

Finance committee  Well, probably a lot more than the time you currently have allotted to scrutinize the $250 billion that goes through. I worked as a budget official on the government side before serving you in the parliamentary budget office, and I can tell you that, on the government side, we d

Finance committee  I think this is actually quite fundamental in the role of Parliament in holding the government to account, but also in effective implementation on the part of the government. One of the things we focus on when we look at program expenditures is looking not just at the inputs—wha

Finance committee  This fall, our Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy will release the results of its survey of Canadian parliamentarians, and the results presented show the difficulties they face in meeting their obligations in terms of fiscal scrutiny. Without adequate decision support, Pa

Finance committee  Thank you, sir. Mr. Chair, vice-chairs, and members of the committee, on behalf of Kevin Page and my colleagues at the new Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy at the University of Ottawa, I would like to thank you for the kind invitation to participate in this committee's