Statement made on 16 June 2009 by Senator Sharon Carstairs (retired)
Hon. Sharon Carstairs:
Honourable senators, your Joint Committee on the Library of Parliament was requested by the Speakers of the Senate and of the House of Commons to examine the role of the Parliamentary Budget Officer within the Library of Parliament.
When the Federal Accountability Act, Bill C-2, was passed by both chambers, it established the Parliamentary Budget Officer. It is clear from this legislation that this officer was to be located and funded through the Library of Parliament. In reviewing the speeches made on Bill C-2 in both chambers, it is interesting that some members of this place, and members of the other place, believed that the Parliamentary Budget Officer was to be an officer of Parliament. This is simply not the case.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer is an officer of the Library of Parliament. It is in this role that your committee conducted its investigations, although one of our recommendations is to review this legislation within three years of the date of his appointment to examine the effectiveness of this office in its present structure.
Honourable senators, your committee met with the Chief Librarian and the Parliamentary Budget Officer. In addition, we met with Alan Darling, hired by the Chief Librarian to help him establish the protocols of this new office. We met with a group of eminent former parliamentarians who had helped to formulate the concept of the PBO. In addition, we met with the Auditor General, officials of the Privy Council Office and officials of the Treasury Board Secretariat.
Your committee has made 10 recommendations to the Speakers of the Senate and the House of Commons. We have made the recommendations in this manner for two reasons: First, it was at the Speakers' request that your committee undertook its work. Second, it is necessary to understand the unique role of the Library of Parliament.
The Library of Parliament reports through the Speakers. The Library of Parliament achieves its budget through an application by the Speakers. It is in this way that the Library of Parliament maintains its independence from the executive branch of government. Your committee exists to provide assistance and advice to the Speakers of both chambers.
The 10 recommendations unanimously agreed to seek to clarify the role of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, both in its relationship to the Library of Parliament but also to parliamentarians. We believe there are two roles for the Parliamentary Budget Officer. One is to provide a series of independent reports to Parliament on the fiscal state of the nation. The other is to provide individual parliamentarians with information and to provide similar information to parliamentary committees at their request.
Since his role is to serve Parliaments and parliamentarians, we recommend that reports generated within his office must first be presented to Parliament and to parliamentarians before they are released to the media. In addition, we recommend that work performed for an individual parliamentarian or a parliamentary committee must be given to that parliamentarian or parliamentary committee, and only at their agreement may this report be released to the media or put on the website of the Parliamentary Budget Officer. In addition, it is recommended that there shall be no release of reports during a general election.
Your committee learned that the Parliamentary Budget Officer was not effectively using all the resources presently available in the Library of Parliament and, as a result, a silo mentality was developing between the Parliamentary Budget Officer and the Library of Parliament. Your committee believes this is an ineffective use of resources, both personal and service, and it is an inappropriate use of resources. The committee has recommended that as a senior officer of the Library of Parliament, the Parliamentary Budget Officer has a responsibility to participate fully in management activities of the library. Your committee wants an action plan as to how the Parliamentary Budget Officer will move forward in this relationship.
At the time of the development of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, the notional amount of $2.7 million was discussed as the need of the PBO when fully operational. This amount has not been realized. Given the needs of the PBO, your committee has recommended that a budget of $2.8 million for the fiscal year 2009-10 be provided to the Parliamentary Budget Officer. However, this is conditional on compliance by the PBO with all other recommendations in this report.
Honourable senators, your committee very much values the work performed by the Parliamentary Budget Officer and wants to ensure that this work continues and indeed is enhanced. Our final recommendation to the Speakers is to urge them to act as soon as possible to make the Parliamentary Budget Officer located in the Library of Parliament an efficient, well-financed service for all parliamentarians.
I want to thank all members of the committee for both their dedication and hard work. Unanimous committee reports, which represent the views of both chambers and of four political parties, are not common and in this case reflect, in my view, two things. All parties agreed on the importance of the Parliamentary Budget Officer and all parties wanted it to work. Everyone around the table was open to making the committee work and I, along with my co-chair, Peter Goldring, from the House of Commons, are deeply appreciative of their effort.
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