pbowatch

… and putting a little more time and effort into documenting how the money is actually being spent.

As noted by Colleague Wherry earlier today, midway through the Toronto Star’s coverage of the all-but-buried-by-the-Coderre-Affair-and-don’t-think-for-a-second-that-was-a-coincidence plank walk by now former Conservative candidate Gordon Landon comes the not entirely astonishing news that the parliamentary budget officer is having some difficulty prying loose the numbers behind the government’s claim that some impressively large percentage of projects to be funded under the Canada Action! Plan are already underway:

So, remember that unanimous committee report on the Parliamentary Budget Office? Turns out that the in camera negotiations played out pretty much exactly as ITQ suspected, right down to the part where it was, indeed, the Liberals — or, at least, the Liberals on that particular committee  — that ultimately came down on the same side as the government on the question of whether the PBO should be liberated from the Library of Parliament.

So while ITQ was busily burrowing through bankruptcy documents — oh, don’t worry, she lives for that stuff — the ever vigilant Colleague Wells was on PBOWatch. Or OPBOWatch, as the case may be.

This time it’s the Liberals giving the Parliamentary Budget Officer a headache

Because really, who wouldn’t want to fill the Robert Marleau-shaped hole over at the Information Commissioner’s office? I mean, if you somehow end up in the government’s bad books with your stubborn insistence on applying the ATI laws as written, you know the opposition has your back, right? Just ask Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page.

… if you’re Kevin Page, that is, and still hold out hope that your office might be able to get that budget boost you insist you were promised by the government.

Full disclosure: the last time ITQ covered the Library committee, it was pretty much just to see if it could be done without the liveblogger lapsing into a coma, but this time, it might actually get interesting. Why? Three words: Parliamentary Budget Officer. Who won’t be there – not this time, anyway, although at least one opposition party – the Bloc Quebecois, to be specific – has a motion to launch a full investigation of the relationship between the Library and the PBO. Somehow, though, I suspect that Parliamentary Librarian William Young will be fielding a few questions on the subject during his appearance today.

Enough, at least, to realize that it’s worth paying attention to the recommendations that the Parliamentary Budget Office released last week. Looks like that spreadsheet y’all worked so hard on may end up being useful after all, guys! From yesterday’s post-QP scrum with John McCallum:

… than the party that came up with the idea to have the government provide them in the first place. Or so it seems from the latest briefing note, released earlier today:

Or do you just not want to give away all your secrets?

4:09:38 PM