Changes could enable feds to spend $7B in budgeted money on other things: PBO

OTTAWA — A new report says the Trudeau government’s efforts to streamline the budgeting process means $7 billion in new spending commitments from its recent budget would be subject to far less parliamentary scrutiny — and could technically be spent on something other than the promised measures.

The federal budget watchdog’s warning is focused on the wording of the government’s proposed changes to better align Ottawa’s budgetary spending plan with the main estimates document that actually gives departments and agencies the authority to spend public funds.

The Liberals have introduced changes as they try to fulfil their 2015 election vow to improve Parliament’s financial processes by bringing more consistency and clarity when it comes to government accounting of how it spends public money.

But the parliamentary budget office says the Liberals’ efforts to speed up the implementation of budget measures will come at a cost of incomplete information and weaker legal powers for parliamentarians who, under the old system, have better control over where the money will flow and how it will be spent.

Deputy parliamentary budget officer Mostafa Askari says the forthcoming changes will help the government fund its measures more quickly — but it will reduce the scrutiny of Parliament and doesn’t compel the government to spend according to its budget plan.

However, a spokesman for Treasury Board President Scott Brison says the government has already improved transparency and accountability by including an item-by-item table in the February budget — and insists that, by law, the funds must be allocated to specific budget measures.

“Treasury Board will not have any discretion to use the funds for any other purpose, as this would be an unauthorized use of public funds,” Farees Nathoo wrote in an email.