The third episode of Nexus PFM’s podcast Politics and Public Finance with host Geoff Dubrow has been released. This episode is a featured interview with Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer, Yves Giroux.
The independence of the Parliamentary Budget Officer is important to ensure the quality and neutrality of the budgetary information and analysis provided to parliamentarians. During this episode of the podcast, Geoff asked Mr. Giroux to discuss the evolution of the PBOs independence. Initially, Canada’s PBO was part of the Library of Parliament. As Mr. Giroux summarized, “the level of independence (was) far from being optimal”.
In 2017, to resolve the issue of the lack of independence of the PBO, the office was restructured as an independent agent of Parliament reporting to the speakers of the House and Senate. With this new shoring-up of its independence, the PBO has broad freedom to exercise the powers within its mandate, question government figures and findings, and request documents and information.
Listen to the third episode of the Politics and Public Finance podcast by clicking here and stay tuned for future blog posts. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast YouTube page so that you can stay up to date on all our episodes!