Finance committee  Yes, sir, I wouldn't imagine that the parliamentary budget officer or office is going to do much sleeping before the election writ is dropped. You would need to have a process that had all of what you described. In addition, you would have to have relationships with all the key departments so that you had access to data and models.

Finance committee  Absolutely not, sir. There is a need to have a work plan and a need to have an annual report; however, I think it would politicize the office, if the Speaker of the day—particularly of the House of Commons, who is an elected member appointed to that position and under a lot of pressure—said, I wouldn't want the parliamentary budget officer of the day doing this sort of work.

Finance committee  I would clearly lay out the purpose. I would more clearly specify the mandate. I would be very particular on the qualifications of the budget officer that you want. On the information provisions, we just heard questions. You need to get to the point that you know right now how you will handle those situations when the government of the day, perhaps a year or two before an election, says they're not giving you the information.

Finance committee  No. I should have mentioned both, sir. Your point is well taken. In my own experience, within the first few months, after we released the first few reports I was getting letters from both Speakers, who were really concerned about our operating model. Eventually, at the end of my tenure, we went into Federal Court on opposite sides on this.

Finance committee  It works for parliamentarians. When we were drafting reports, however, we wanted to write them in such a way that all Canadians could read the reports. Effectively, then, you're working for both, and you do not want to work in a partisan way, so in that sense you feel that you're working for what is best for the country.

Finance committee  It goes back to what Mr. Khan said. If you have an experienced budgetary official leading the office, they would be quite familiar with the rules and restrictions around personal information, around solicitor-client information, around cabinet confidence, or access to information.

Finance committee  We want members of Parliament to be very comfortable, with the kind of parliamentary budget office they want. I think the more you can go through, on a clause-by-clause basis, the questions of whether this legislation captures the purpose, whether it's the precise mandate that you want, whether these are the kinds of reports you want to see every year from the parliamentary budget officer, what the relationships with committees and individual MPs are, what the qualifications of the individual PBO are....

Finance committee  There are some very specific amendments that we propose. The current parliamentary budget officer has a very similar set of amendments. That is clearly one, around work plans and the Speakers. As a parliamentary budget officer, I struggle with the legislation right from reading the purpose.

Finance committee  Again, the idea of producing a work plan is a great idea. It should be produced. Do you want the Speakers to have a final say or control over what's in that work plan or not? That's the point of contention for me. I don't think we do.

Finance committee  Yes, but again to be honest, I compliment the government on saying that they are open to amendments. I'm somebody who's been in the financial community since around 1980 and it's rare to see governments open to amendments on budget implementation bills. So that by itself I find is a positive.

Finance committee  No. I don't think the PBO should go directly to a federal court if it doesn't get the information. In my experience as the parliamentary budget officer, we ran into significant problems getting information from public servants that was very important to bring forth to members of a committee like this.

Finance committee  No. It's not in the legislation. The Auditor General does not require the Speakers to approve their work plans, though again, the Office of the Auditor General provides work plans on what they feel based on their lens, usually risk material—and their forecast projections for when they will complete reports over a four year cycle.

Finance committee  Again, that's another excellent question. It's very important that the legislation be as clear as possible on what you want the parliamentary budget officer to do, so if you want to see economic and fiscal projections two times a year, and if you want to see fiscal sustainability analysis—

Finance committee  Unfortunately, to get right to your answer, no, it does not spell it out that clearly right now. In other legislations that have survived, for example, the Congressional Budget Office in the United States, there is that level of specificity. Having a really clear mandate is very important.

Finance committee  No, sir, I'll be direct. I don't think a couple of hours would do the legislation justice. I think, as we discussed here today, there's a need for amendments. There's stuff that we haven't even talked about yet, like the process for costing opposition party manifestos or party platforms.