PBO won't have price tags for all campaign promises if snap election is called
Parliamentary Budget Office evaluated more than 200 pledges during 2019 election
The Canadian government's financial watchdog says he won't be able to put price tags on some campaign promises if a widely anticipated federal election is called later this month.
Yves Giroux, Ottawa's parliamentary budget officer (PBO), said a snap election will leave his office with too little time to fully assess the cost of party platforms when they are announced.
His staff's ability to do that work is "greatly diminished under a snap election," Giroux told CBC's Power & Politics on Monday.
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"It's important for the electorate, the voters, to have that independent and non-partisan costing because it ensures that when a political party makes a campaign promise, it has been costed by a bunch of professionals."
Giroux said his office provided cost estimates for more than 200 campaign promises made by various parties ahead of the 2019 federal election.
The Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer can begin working on those estimates 120 days before a fixed election date, but in the event of a snap election, Giroux and his team can only begin that work when the writ is dropped.
By law, election periods must be a minimum of 36 days and a maximum of 50 days, leaving the budget office with far less time to conduct its work.
While Giroux said his office will not be able to conduct a comprehensive costing of campaign promises, he said it will have time to provide estimates for the major pillars of the various campaigns when they are officially announced.
He said that will require some collaboration with the parties about which of their promises they want to have evaluated.
"Parties will have to more carefully prioritize what they ask me to cost and give me as much heads up as possible," Giroux said.