Prices in Canada continue to go up under Mark Carney’s government, and many of them are automatic, meaning that Parliament does not approve them (cost of postage, alcohol, passports etc.) Does this increasing reliance on ‘escalator’ taxes concern you? Let me know here!

Vacancy at the Budget Office Continues

April 2, 2026

In March’s Kusie Update, we outlined an alarming vacancy created by the Liberal government in the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer. As was highlighted, without a Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO), MPs cannot request that spending be independently analyzed, nor can the Office of the PBO publish new reports or analysis.

The PBO is not a role which is supposed to go unfilled. In fact, when interim PBO Jason Jacques was appointed to the role last September, the clock began ticking for the Liberal government to nominate a permanent Budget Officer for parliamentarians to approve before Mr. Jacques’ term was up.

The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Unfortunately, the Liberals refused and did not announce their hand-picked nominee – Ms. Annette Ryan – until March 9, a week after the now-former Budget Officer was removed from his office.

While Ms. Ryan has been nominated by the Liberal cabinet, she has yet to be approved by votes in the House of Commons and Senate – votes which, as a result of Parliament’s sitting calendar, cannot take place until mid-April at the earliest.

This delay means the Liberals will have silenced the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer for nearly a month and a half, leaving Canadians and parliamentarians without critical independent scrutiny and fiscal analysis on government spending.

As usual with this Liberal government, it didn’t have to be this way.

Beginning in September, Conservatives told the government that we expected Mr. Jacques to be permanently appointed to a seven-year term as PBO – a sentiment which was approved by the Bloc Québécois and passed at a Government Operations Committee meeting. However, Liberals refused to act. They refused to nominate Mr. Jacques, and they even refused to nominate another candidate until after the interim term expired.

Liberal negligence in filling the role is an insult to Parliament and tells Canadians what they think of the PBO’s independent voice.

Conservatives will be voting against the Liberal pick for Budget Officer and believe the government must reappoint Jason Jacques to the permanent seven-year term as PBO.

During his time as interim PBO, Mr. Jacques proved that he was both competent and capable of fulfilling this role independently. Canadians deserve a PBO who will call out excessive and wasteful spending, not spew talking points from the Prime Minister’s Office, as any new and untested Budget Officer could.