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.
One of the ways that the Parliamentary Budget Officer interacts with parliamentarians is by appearing at committee hearings. In this capacity, the PBO brings independent budgetary information and analysis related to the business of the committee. In the episode, Mr. Giroux provides an example of a recent committee hearing appearance relating to the proposed purchase of a number of warships for the Royal Canadian Navy. As the government incorporates more information from their procurement process into the costing estimates, the total cost projection has been increased multiple times. Parliamentarians requested that the PBO conduct its own costing of the project so that Parliament could scrutinize the procurement proposal carefully. In the end, the cost estimate reached by the PBO was significantly higher than the government’s projection.
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 YouTube page so that you can stay up to date on all our episodes!