Parliamentary Budget Officer laments the Trudeau government's lack of transparency
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Share November 4, 2020 1:59 p.m. Updated at 2:00 p.m. Share Parliamentary Budget Officer deplores Trudeau government's lack of transparency The Canadian Press OTTAWA – The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) deplores the lack of transparency of the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau surrounding billions of dollars in planned federal spending.
The PBO's office shoots these arrows in two separate reports released Wednesday morning.
In the first report, the PBO says the Liberals failed to provide detailed information to parliamentarians when they recently asked them to approve additional spending totaling $ 79 billion – mostly for the fight against the pandemic, according to the government.
The second report examines the cost associated with the new law aimed at reducing the wage gap between men and women who perform similar work in federally regulated workplaces.
The PBO estimates that the government will spend at least $ 600 million a year for pay equity, but that figure represents only about 30% of jobs affected by the new law.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer concludes that the real cost of this plan will be much higher, but he deplores the fact that the government has refused to provide him with its financial analysis of the additional expenditures it plans to incur to apply the Pay Equity Act. The government “refused to disclose this data, citing the confidentiality of Privy Council information,” said the PBO.
