For the first time in almost 20 years, Canada does not have a Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO). This role was first created in 2006 by the Harper Conservative government with the passage of the Federal Accountability Act. The office was established to provide independent financial and economic analysis to Parliament and increase budget transparency. The first PBO was appointed in 2008.
There have been five people in the PBO role to date, and by all measures they have all done an excellent job. There has been much more scrutiny of federal budgets, spending and estimates of the impact of federal policies on the economy and Canadians generally. The PBO also responds to questions from various MPs to investigate particular issues, and is an independent agent of Parliament, at the service of all MPs of every party.
A PBO is typically chosen by all of Parliament, not just the political party in power, for a term of seven years. The last person who served as PBO for a seven-year term was Yves Giroux. For unknown reasons, the Liberals decided to appoint an interim PBO after the end of Giroux’s term instead of initiating the process to choose a new PBO for the traditional seven-year term. The government in power is able to appoint an interim PBO without consulting the other political parties.
Jason Jacques, an economist and chartered accountant who had worked in the PBO for a number of years as well as holding other federal government positions, was chosen to be the interim PBO in September 2025. He came out of the gate with a bang as he stated the federal government’s fiscal plan was unsustainable. He was also highly critical of the Carney government’s decision to divide spending into capital and operational categories. This is a technique that has been used by other governments over the years, usually as a means of justifying high government spending by claiming it is “investment” rather than spending that will see no rate of return. Jacques was well justified in questioning this sleight of hand by Carney.
Jacques was very proactive in the interim PBO role, regularly criticizing the Liberal government for its excessive spending and the sky-high deficit in the 2025 budget. He was absolutely correct in doing so, as the first Carney budget included even more spending than the Trudeau government had planned, and a deficit of $78 billion – a record for a non-pandemic year. Jacques also recommended the creation of a new independent body to clarify the definition of capital spending in the context of the Liberals’ new budget framework, which would have been a positive addition.
Clearly, this kind of detailed, honest and expert scrutiny of federal finances was too much for the Carney government, which has been even more secretive and non-transparent than its Trudeau predecessor. Carney has been extremely clandestine in hiding various financial transactions of taxpayer dollars and signing things like Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) that Canadians are not able to see. The MOU that Carney has signed as a “strategic partnership” with China is a very worrisome example, in part because Carney has refused to permit anyone to see what is in the agreement. Clearly there must be something problematic in that agreement if Canadians have no right to see it.
As for the PBO, in retrospect Jacques should probably have kept his powder dry, made a number of mediocre reports during his interim period so that he could then be confirmed for the next seven years. After being confirmed in the position, he could have levelled both barrels at the Carney government’s ridiculous overspending and lack of transparency for years to come and served Canadians very well in the process. Jacques made a great contribution in a few months, and it’s sad that can’t continue to expose the Liberals who hate transparency of any kind.
It will be interesting to see how long the Liberals decide to keep this position vacant, giving them carte blanche with no oversight, and who they eventually choose to replace the effective Jacques. If they choose some Liberal toady who delivers supportive milquetoast reports on federal finances, they will deserve every criticism they get.
She has published numerous articles in journals, magazines & other media on issues such as free trade, finance, entrepreneurship & women business owners. Ms. Swift is a past President of the Empire Club of Canada, a former Director of the CD Howe Institute, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages, past President of the International Small Business Congress and current Director of the Fraser Institute. She was cited in 2003 & 2012 as one of the most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network & is a recipient of the Queen’s Silver & Gold Jubilee medals.
