MPs to question federal budget watchdog nominee as role remains unfilled

Ottawa’s nominee for federal fiscal watchdog will face questions from members of Parliament on Monday after a turbulent period for the budget office.

Annette Ryan, a longtime public servant and currently a deputy director at Canada’s financial intelligence agency, Fintrac, was named as cabinet’s pick to be the next parliamentary budget officer earlier this month.

Ryan’s nomination, which must be approved by the House of Commons and Senate, was referred to the parliamentary finance committee, where she’ll testify on Monday afternoon.

The Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer scrutinizes federal spending decisions and helps to cost out campaign proposals during elections.

There’s currently no PBO in place because interim officer Jason Jacques’ six-month term expired at the start of the month with no successor named. The office is unable to publish reports or take on new requests from parliamentarians until someone is named to the role.

Ryan said that, out of respect for the process, she would not sit for an interview ahead of Monday’s committee appearance.

She said in a brief message that she is honoured to be nominated.

“There is nothing more fundamental to parliamentary democracy than the scrutiny of the public taxation and spending choices on behalf of the people,” Ryan said.

She also said she has “tremendous respect” for Jacques and all those who served in the role before her.

Should Ryan be confirmed for the office’s seven-year mandate, she would have the backing of Kevin Page, Canada’s first PBO and the president of the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy at the University of Ottawa.

“I got to know her and she is super smart,” Page said, reflecting on his time working with Ryan in the Privy Council Office in the early 2000s. He said he worked with Ryan on briefing notes advising both former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin and former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper.

Page said he also offered public officials informal advice during the latest PBO recruitment process.

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Ryan holds a degree in mathematics from Acadia University and a degree in economics from Oxford University, where she attended as a Rhodes Scholar. Her career in Canada’s public sector has also seen her take on roles at Finance Canada, Industry Canada and Employment and Social Development Canada.

Page said that experience should serve her well at a critical moment for Canada’s economy and public policy, as Prime Minister Mark Carney attempts to leverage public finances to build out housing, infrastructure and other major projects.

“To have somebody that really worked on those issues means you’re not starting with a blank sheet of paper and not very much knowledge. She really brings a ton of experience,” he said.

The Canadian Press asked Carney’s office if he and Ryan had worked together in the past, whether in the public service or during their overlapping time at Oxford in the early 1990s. A spokesperson described the pair as acquaintances but did not offer further details.

Privy Council Office spokesman Pierre Cuguen said Ryan’s appointment “resulted from an open, competency-based selection process.”

“All applicable procedures and rules have been followed, including those outlined in the Conflict of Interest Act,” he said in a media statement.

Page said he can understand if some are worried about Ryan taking on a watchdog role in Parliament having known Carney previously. He said he did not share those concerns and noted that Canada’s finance community is so small, it would have been hard for Carney and Ryan to have avoided interacting at some point in their careers.

Page said he faced similar questions when he prepared to take on the first PBO position in 2008. He was assistant secretary to then-prime minister Harper just a few months before taking on the inaugural budget officer role.

“And I would say, within a year, they were trying to fire me because they felt that I was being almost too hard on the government,” he said.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said on March 9 that his party would review Ryan’s record and vote accordingly on her nomination.

In a letter to Carney sent March 5, Poilievre said he had “serious” reservations about the prime minister’s suggested appointment and urged him to install Jacques to a full seven-year term. Poilievre accused Carney of trying to “muzzle” the PBO by letting Jacques’ interim term expire.

Some Conservative and Bloc Québécois MPs backed that push, and the standing committee on government operations and estimates passed a motion on March 10 recommending that Jacques take on the permanent position, despite Liberal opposition.

Early in Jacques’ tenure as interim PBO, he described the Liberal government’s finances as “stupefying” and not sustainable. He later told The Canadian Press in an interview that he regrets using that language and said after Ottawa tabled the fall budget in November that the federal spending plan was sustainable in the long run.

Jacques, who said he would apply for the permanent position, did not offer comment for this story.

Page said he respects Jacques, having worked with him extensively during and before his time at the budget office. He said he can understand why opposition parties would seize on the language Jacques used, but added it likely quashed the interim PBO’s chances of landing the permanent gig.

“He’s really experienced and he’s technically very sound and he is a good person, but you can’t say stuff like that,” he said. “For me, it was disqualifying.”

Ryan’s nomination comes a few weeks after the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the OECD, published a largely glowing report on Canada’s PBO and ranked the office first internationally among fiscal monitors.

The report flagged Jacques’ comments last year in the context of the need for a formal PBO communications strategy, which the office implemented earlier this year. It also criticized “persistent delays” in appointing new budget officers and said relying on interim PBOs can affect perceptions of independence.

Page said accusations of partisanship come with the territory on Parliament Hill, and whoever heads up the office next will need to be prepared to handle the political environment.

Page turned to sports to make his point.

“If you play hockey and play at a competitive level, you’re going to get hit,” he said. “You’re going to have to take hits and get up off the ice.”