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TERRAZANNO: Liberals owe Canadians a parliamentary budget officer now 

At best, Carney’s failure to hire a new PBO shows supreme incompetence. At worst, it reveals the Carney government is trying to avoid scrutiny

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The Liberal government would rather cut the budget watchdog than cut the debt.

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Prime Minister Mark Carney failed to appoint a new parliamentary budget officer (PBO), and his failure has huge implications for taxpayers.

TERRAZANNO: Liberals owe Canadians a parliamentary budget officer now  Back to video

“Due to the current vacancy in the position of parliamentary budget officer, the Office of the parliamentary budget officer will not be publishing new reports or undertaking new requests from parliamentarians,” reads a statement from the office of the PBO.

From calling out Carney’s creative budget accounting to slicing through carbon tax spin, the PBO has been the best tool Canadians have within government to hold politicians accountable on money matters.

At best, Carney’s failure to hire a new PBO shows supreme incompetence. At worst, it reveals the Carney government is trying to avoid scrutiny.

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Evidence points to the latter.

Carney ignored vacancy, will of Parliament

The Carney government is “in effect silencing an agent of Parliament and preventing the office from fulfilling its mandate,” former PBO Yves Giroux said. “It’s clear to me that it is a conscious decision to have the PBO quiet, or to ensure that the institution is quiet for some time.”

Giroux left the PBO last September, so Carney has had six months to find his full-time replacement.

Carney ignored the vacancy and he also ignored the will of Parliament.

Cabinet dismissed a November motion from a parliamentary committee to start interviewing potential candidates.

The Senate’s finance committee previously adopted a motion to renew Giroux’s contract, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

When the government finally got around to putting up a job posting, it called for the new budget officer to exercise “tact and discretion.” That sure seems like the government is trying to send a chilling message to freeze criticism from the next PBO.

PBO needs to hold government accountable

Canadians need the PBO to continue the office’s great work of fearlessly holding the government accountable on the big issues.

For example, Carney ran on a platform of separating government finances into an operating and capital budget. Carney wanted Canadians to think he was cutting waste to balance the operating budget by 2028.

The PBO rightly called out Carney for using an “overly expansive” definition of capital and relabelling $94 billion of operating spending as “capital investments.” And without using that “overly expansive” definition of capital spending, Carney would run an $18-billion operating deficit in 2028.

In effect, the PBO showed regular people that Carney wouldn’t meet his central budget promise.

The PBO also sliced through the Trudeau government’s carbon tax spin. The Trudeau government tried to pull the wool over Canadians’ eyes by claiming its carbon tax and rebates made most people richer.

The PBO’s crushing analysis dealt the fatal blow to the government’s favourite talking point. The PBO published three reports proving the carbon tax cost average families hundreds of dollars more than the rebates they got back.

The PBO’s data also showed that Justin Trudeau’s government wouldn’t balance the budget until 2040. In the meantime, debt interest charges would cost each Canadian more than $18,000.

The PBO showed Canadians that the cost of the federal bureaucracy increased 80% in 10 years. And while nearly all government executives take a bonus every year, the PBO found that “less than 50% of (government performance) targets are consistently met within the same year.”

The PBO also showed Canadians that the hidden carbon tax in fuel regulations will increase gas prices by about 7¢ per litre this year and cost the average family up to $1,100 in 2030.

Taxpayers always deserve government accountability and transparency and the PBO has been delivering that for years.

If politicians don’t want to be criticized for producing bad budgets and spinning the public about tax hikes, they shouldn’t produce bad budgets and try to spin Canadians.

Carney owes taxpayers a PBO now.

Franco Terrazzano is the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation 

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