OTTAWA — Interim parliamentary budget officer Sonia L’Heureux is resuming her predecessor’s battle for information with another round of requests to all deputy ministers to turn over details on the impact on their departments of the Conservatives’ $5.2 billion spending cuts from last year’s budget.
The letters, which are expected to be sent Thursday to 84 departments and agencies, comes within days of a Federal Court decision that dismissed former PBO Kevin Page’s application in a ruling that also reaffirmed the right of the PBO to ask for the information it has been seeking for more than a year.
L’Heureux set a May 10 deadline for departments to reply.
The PBO, buoyed by the ruling, is largely re-sending the original requests it sent to deputy ministers last year after the budget, to get a handle on the impact of the spending cuts for MPs. The PBO never received full responses from departments, other than from a handful of small agencies and other agents or officers of Parliament.
At the time, Privy Council Clerk Wayne Wouters stepped in on behalf of deputy ministers and refused to hand over the information. Several ministers, including Treasury Board President Tony Clement, said the PBO was overstepping its mandate.
The tug of war over Page’s right to request information eventually landed the government and Page in court when NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair asked the PBO to analyze the impact of the cuts.
The court overturned Page’s application for a reference on a technicality because he didn’t specifically seek the data from the departments, again upon Mulcair’s request, so there was no actual refusal for him to rule on.
In the ruling, however, Federal Court Justice Sean Harrington said Page has the mandate to estimate and analyze the cost of any issue that Parliament has jurisdiction over when requested by an MP or Senator. It also confirmed that his court does have jurisdiction over disputes involving the PBO.
With that decision, L’Heureux said the PBO will now request the information from deputy ministers to respond to Mulcair’s request.
“We expect that the requested information will be duly provided by the government departments and agencies. If a dispute arises, the court has said it will be available to assist with its resolution,” she said in a statement.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Kathryn May
The letters, which are expected to be sent Thursday to 84 departments and agencies, comes within days of a Federal Court decision that dismissed former PBO Kevin Page’s application in a ruling that also reaffirmed the right of the PBO to ask for the information it has been seeking for more than a year.
L’Heureux set a May 10 deadline for departments to reply.
The PBO, buoyed by the ruling, is largely re-sending the original requests it sent to deputy ministers last year after the budget, to get a handle on the impact of the spending cuts for MPs. The PBO never received full responses from departments, other than from a handful of small agencies and other agents or officers of Parliament.
At the time, Privy Council Clerk Wayne Wouters stepped in on behalf of deputy ministers and refused to hand over the information. Several ministers, including Treasury Board President Tony Clement, said the PBO was overstepping its mandate.
The tug of war over Page’s right to request information eventually landed the government and Page in court when NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair asked the PBO to analyze the impact of the cuts.
The court overturned Page’s application for a reference on a technicality because he didn’t specifically seek the data from the departments, again upon Mulcair’s request, so there was no actual refusal for him to rule on.
In the ruling, however, Federal Court Justice Sean Harrington said Page has the mandate to estimate and analyze the cost of any issue that Parliament has jurisdiction over when requested by an MP or Senator. It also confirmed that his court does have jurisdiction over disputes involving the PBO.
With that decision, L’Heureux said the PBO will now request the information from deputy ministers to respond to Mulcair’s request.
“We expect that the requested information will be duly provided by the government departments and agencies. If a dispute arises, the court has said it will be available to assist with its resolution,” she said in a statement.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Kathryn May
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