Ottawa

The quiet cuts

Kevin Page restates his concerns.

“The government is basically saying they could freeze operational spending, freeze direct program spending, for five years and it will have effectively no impact on services,” said Page, who has often been at odds with the Conservatives as head of the four-year-old PBO. “And they’re not telling us where the axe is going to fall within federal departments.”

… next week Page will for the first time start publishing post-budget spending records based on internal government data. He said this will give MPs and the public a snapshot of how government spending is rising or falling for specific programs. Looking ahead, he said, “The only way we turn this around is with all politicians, including backbenchers even on the government side (of the Commons), saying we do need this. This is a great opportunity to bring Parliament along, to increase the level of scrutiny and empower MPs by providing better information.”

See previously: The quiet cuts

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