Seemingly in response to a column by the Globe’s Barrie McKenna on the government’s reluctance to detail budget cuts, Liberal MP John McCallum challenges Tony Clement via Twitter.
Seemingly in response to a column by the Globe’s Barrie McKenna on the government’s reluctance to detail budget cuts, Liberal MP John McCallum challenges Tony Clement via Twitter.
Minister, could you please tell us which rule you believe prevents you from providing this info to the HoC.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer reported last week on his efforts to obtain information from 83 departments. At the time, Mr. Clement responded as follows.
There’s a process in place and the Parliamentary Budget Officer knows full well what the process is. We report to Parliament. We report to Parliament in quarterly reports, we report to Parliament in estimates, we report to Parliament in due course in reports on plans and priorities, consistent with parliamentary rules and requirements. So the fact of the matter is we also have an obligation to our employees, that we inform them first. So we’re being consistent with our collective agreements, we’re being consistent with the rules of Parliament. So when things are announced to employees, then of course that becomes public information and the parliamentary budget officer will have that information at that point.