Conservative MPs say the party will vote against the Liberal government’s nominee for Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO).
The cabinet announced on March 9 that senior public servant Annette Ryan, chief financial officer and deputy director with Canada’s financial intelligence agency, FINTRAC, has been selected for the role.
However, the Conservatives said the job should be given to Jason Jacques, who served as interim PBO from September to March 2. Jacques had applied to become the permanent PBO, which entails a term of up to seven years with an opportunity for renewal, but he was passed up by the government. The PBO’s role is to scrutinize the country’s fiscal situation as well as various government programs and plans.
Conservative MP Sandra Cobena told reporters on March 23 that Tories on the finance committee will vote against Ryan as PBO, and are “calling on the Liberal government to reinstate the rightful PBO, Mr. Jason Jacques.”
Cobena said Jacques was being “removed” because he had “done his job in exposing the government” in a non-partisan manner. “[Jacques] has been recognized internationally. Why wouldn’t you keep him, right? Why wouldn’t you reinstate him?” Cobena said.
During her appearance before the finance committee on March 23, Ryan said she would provide parliamentarians with “high-quality, independent, and relevant analysis so that you can hold the prime minister, his ministers, and senior officials to account.”
Ryan said that, in order to protect the independence of the office, she would only serve for one term, “and I want the government to have a clear timeline to appoint my successor.”
Conservative MP Jasraj Singh Hallan questioned whether Ryan would commit to being impartial and transparent in her role as PBO, which Ryan said she would do. Singh Hallan brought up that Ryan attended Oxford University at the same time as Prime Minister Mark Carney and asked how Canadians could be sure she would be impartial.
Ryan responded that she and Carney had “different social circles” at university, and said she also knew him in a “professional capacity” when she was the chief economist at Industry Canada and he was governor of the Bank of Canada.
“I would also add, just for your comfort, that even though we had positive and professional engagements anytime we met, I did not have any contact with him after he left to become governor of the Bank of England,” she said.
Bloc Québécois MP Jean-Denis Garon said the Bloc had also asked for the re-appointment of Jacques as PBO, and asked Ryan why she believed the government had not chosen Jacques.
Ryan replied that “I think it’s better if you put that question to the government itself.”
Garon noted that Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon had said during question period earlier in the day that Canada is in an “economic apocalypse,” and asked whether Ryan would use such language. Ryan said she would “do my best to not use hyperbolic language” when describing economic scenarios.
As interim PBO, Jacques made headlines at a government operations committee meeting in September when he said Canada had a “really serious” and “stupefying” fiscal outlook and that “everybody should be concerned.”
Jacques later told The Canadian Press that he should not have used those words and that “people make mistakes.” Conservatives had praised Jacques for his analysis and language around the government’s increasing spending and deficits, while the Liberals said that Jacques had taken a “narrow outlook” of the country’s fiscal trajectory.
