Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer Vows to Use Court Ruling to Demand Information

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The newly appointed interim parliamentary budget officer, Sonia L’Heureux, has avowed to inquire the government departments for budget analysis information in accordance to a fresh Federal Court ruling of this week. L’Heureux alleged that she’s pleased that the court has responded timely and clarified the ambiguities faced by her predecessor, Kevin Page, regarding the budget officer’s mandate.

The court pointed out a technicality for not decisively declaring whether the budget office has a legal right to demand the government turn over information on its cost-cutting program. The ruling states that Page never really inquired for the information which he claims that the departments denied him. L’Heureux has now promised that she will ask for that information for addressing the request of analysis made by NDP Leader Tom Mulcair. She hopes that the government will turn over the information and in case it doesn’t, she alleged, the Federal Court has said it can intervene.

Lawyer Paul Champ mentioned on Monday that Justice Sean Harrington’s ruling has cleared the way for the budget watchdog to take the federal government to court to get documents. He stated that “the court clearly said that the government must comply with requests from the parliamentary budget officer, and if they refuse, this can be challenged in court.” Champ explained “so this is really good news for fiscal accountability. Before, when the PBO would ask for documents and was refused, he really couldn’t do anything but complain.” He pointed out “but now this judgment says that his request for documents or information is legally enforceable, and that it doesn’t interfere with the internal workings of Parliament.”