Don’t worry about what the Harper government is ^not spending…

Posted on: Sunday, October 7, 2012
Posted at: 5:16 PM

Tony Clement, the President of Treasury Board, would like Canadians to believe that Kevin Page, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, is operating outside his mandate when he requests details on how $5.2B will be cut from the Harper government’s operating budget over the next 3 years.

According to the Member of Parliament from Parry Sound—Muskoka, it is ^not the money the Harper government does ^not spend, but rather the money the Harper government does spend that the Parliamentary Budget Officer should be worried about…

Huh? On what planet does *that* make any sense? 

Let’s review, shall we?

In 2006, riding in on the white horse of accountability and transparency, the Harper government, via the Federal Accountability Act, created the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer’s mandate is “to provide independent analysis to Parliament on the state of the nation’s finances, the government’s estimates and trends in the Canadian economy; and upon request from a committee or parliamentarian, to estimate the financial cost of any proposal for matters over which Parliament has jurisdiction.”

Please show me where, in the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s mandate, it makes the distinction between money ^not spent and money spent?

You can’t. Do you know why? I’ll tell you…

Because it doesn’t!

2012-10-07  »  somecanuckchick