Apr 12
12
In an article applauding the work of Kevin Page and his Parliamentary Budget Office, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation called on Parliament to protect the independent work of that office by giving it that status and independence of the office of the Auditor General.
The article pointed out that it was the Parliamentary Budget Officer who was giving accurate information to Canadian citizens on the F-35 purchase and expressed concern that unless that work is shielded from political interference by the government, Canadians might lose the benefit of blunt and transparent assessments of the costs and benefits of future spending projects. The article specifically referenced the proposed purchase by the DND of a fleet of F-35 fighter jets, comparing the PBO’s 2011 estimate of $30 billion to the much more comfortable figure of $14.7 billion. The PBO has shown that the budget estimates put forward by the Minister of Defence, Peter Mackay, were unrealistically low and excluded costs without which the purchase of the jets would have no benefit.
“It’s now clear that the only reliable cost information on the F-35s given to Parliament or Canadians came from the Parliamentary Budget Officer – not the government, not the Department of National Defence, not any Minister responding to questions in the House of Commons, ” said CTF Federal Director Gregory Thomas.
It’s a remarkably honest assessment of the issues of government interference and partisan posturing. While the Official (and unofficial) Opposition can be expected to react negatively to any government initiative—especially when it involves national defence—the refreshing nature of this commentary by the CTF is that it is presented without partisan motives but purely in the interest of transparent, responsible disclosure of government spending.
As an aside, the revelation of hidden costs shows two things:
- There is a political temptation to disguise motives and intentions for the sake of deluding the public, who are after expected to “forgive and forget”.
- The reality that government spending is going up, not down. The talk of “budget cuts” and “restraint” is just so much window-dressing. It’s easier to spend other peoples’ money than it is to explain the necessity of wise and frugal cost-restraints.