{"id":3908,"date":"2026-03-02T23:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/?p=3908"},"modified":"2026-03-02T23:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:24:12","slug":"no-more-federal-budget-watchdog-in-ottawa-as-interim-pbos-term-expires-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/?p=3908","title":{"rendered":"No more federal budget watchdog in Ottawa as interim PBO\u2019s term expires &#8211; National"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div data-article-socialshare=\"true\">\n<div id=\"article-fontSizer\" class=\"c-fontSizer\">\n<p>\n\t\t<button class=\"c-fontSizer__button c-fontSizer__button--decrease c-button c-button--details c-button--mini\" data-trackable=\"true\" data-trackaction=\"Font Sizer Decrease Font\" data-tooltip-title=\"Decrease text size\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"sr-only\">Descrease article font size<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<svg class=\"c-icon  c-fontSizer__icon\" focusable=\"false\">\n\t\t<use xlink:href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/wp-content\/themes\/shaw-globalnews\/assets\/dist\/icons\/out\/symbol\/svg\/sprite.symbol.svg?v=03zxzk4qx#font-decrease\"\/>\n\t<\/svg><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/button>\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t<button class=\"c-fontSizer__button c-fontSizer__button--increase c-button c-button--details c-button--mini\" data-trackable=\"true\" data-trackaction=\"Font Sizer Increase Font\" data-tooltip-title=\"Increase text size\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"sr-only\">Increase article font size<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<svg class=\"c-icon  c-fontSizer__icon\" focusable=\"false\">\n\t\t<use xlink:href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/wp-content\/themes\/shaw-globalnews\/assets\/dist\/icons\/out\/symbol\/svg\/sprite.symbol.svg?v=03zxzk4qx#font-increase\"\/>\n\t<\/svg><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/button>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>There is currently no parliamentary budget officer scrutinizing federal finances in Ottawa as the interim fiscal watchdog\u2019s term expired Monday without a successor in place.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/d21y75miwcfqoq.cloudfront.net\/70c8fc80\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The PBO is an independent agent of Parliament tasked with analyzing federal budgets, spending proposals and election campaign promises to raise the quality of public debate.<\/p>\n<p>With no budget officer installed, the office itself cannot publish any reports or accept new work requests from parliamentarians.<\/p>\n<p>The budget office will continue to work on existing requests while waiting for a new officer to be named.<\/p>\n<p>Interim PBO Jason Jacques was appointed to a six-month term in September that ended at 5 p.m. ET Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Ottawa opened applications for a new permanent PBO in November and last week a Privy Council Office spokesman said information about the appointment of a permanent budget officer would be \u201cmade available in due course.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-ad c-ad--bigbox l-article__ad\">\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The appointment of a permanent budget officer to a seven-year term is decided by cabinet and must be approved by Parliament.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-inlineSignup\" data-newsletter-inline=\"\">\n<div class=\"c-inlineSignup__image\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/wp-content\/themes\/shaw-globalnews\/images\/skyline\/money123.jpg\" alt=\"Get expert insights, Q&amp;A on markets, housing, inflation, and personal finance information delivered to you every Saturday.\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"c-inlineSignup__content\">\n<h2 class=\"c-inlineSignup__title\">Get weekly money news<\/h2>\n<p>Get expert insights, Q&amp;A on markets, housing, inflation, and personal finance information delivered to you every Saturday.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Interim PBOs, like Jacques, can be appointed without parliamentary sign-off for six-month terms.<\/p>\n<div class=\"l-article__part\" data-shortcode=\"tp_video\">\n<div class=\"c-video c-videoPlay \" data-iframe-receiver=\"\" data-autoplay=\"\" data-displayinline-featured=\"false\" data-displayinline-type=\"video\" data-displayinline-player-id=\"miniplayer_11527563_69a61b248e4ee\" data-displayinline-video-id=\"11527563\" data-displayinline-ratio=\"16:9\" data-displayinline=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/video\/embed\/11527563\/#autoplay&amp;stickyiframe=miniplayer_11527563_69a61b248e4ee\" data-displayinline-sticky=\"true\" data-permutive-data=\"{&quot;content&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;2025 budget leaves 'little room' for future risks, watchdog finds&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;video&quot;,&quot;sections&quot;:[&quot;videos&quot;,&quot;national&quot;,&quot;canada&quot;,&quot;economy&quot;,&quot;politics&quot;],&quot;keywords&quot;:[&quot;2025-budget&quot;,&quot;business&quot;,&quot;federal-government&quot;,&quot;liberals&quot;,&quot;prime-minister-mark-carney&quot;],&quot;iab&quot;:{&quot;categories&quot;:[&quot;Business and Industrial&quot;,&quot;News\\\/Business News&quot;,&quot;Law and Government\\\/Government&quot;,&quot;Law and Government&quot;,&quot;News&quot;],&quot;tags&quot;:[&quot;Bloc Qu\\u00e9b\\u00e9cois&quot;,&quot;Budget&quot;,&quot;Cabinet (government)&quot;,&quot;Canada&quot;,&quot;Committee&quot;,&quot;Debate&quot;,&quot;Debt&quot;,&quot;Election&quot;,&quot;Finance&quot;,&quot;House of Commons of the United Kingdom&quot;,&quot;Lead(II) oxide&quot;,&quot;Liberal Party of Canada&quot;,&quot;Marie-H\\u00e9l\\u00e8ne Gaudreau&quot;,&quot;OECD&quot;,&quot;Ottawa&quot;,&quot;Parliament Hill&quot;,&quot;Parliamentary Budget Officer&quot;,&quot;Privy Council Office (Canada)&quot;,&quot;Quebec&quot;,&quot;The Canadian Press&quot;,&quot;United States federal budget&quot;]}}}\">\n<div class=\"c-video__inner \">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-video__placeholder\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<img class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: '2025 budget leaves \u2018little room\u2019 for future risks, watchdog finds'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.globalnews.ca\/videostatic\/news\/tmc4lxuzch-shmj85tldp\/FRI_GN_PBO_AKIN_SITE_THUMB_141125.jpg?w=1040&amp;quality=70&amp;strip=all\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"\" sizes=\"auto, \" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.globalnews.ca\/videostatic\/news\/tmc4lxuzch-shmj85tldp\/FRI_GN_PBO_AKIN_SITE_THUMB_141125.jpg?quality=70&amp;strip=all&amp;w=450 450w,https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.globalnews.ca\/videostatic\/news\/tmc4lxuzch-shmj85tldp\/FRI_GN_PBO_AKIN_SITE_THUMB_141125.jpg?quality=70&amp;strip=all&amp;w=720 720w,https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.globalnews.ca\/videostatic\/news\/tmc4lxuzch-shmj85tldp\/FRI_GN_PBO_AKIN_SITE_THUMB_141125.jpg?quality=70&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1040 1040w,\" data-sizes=\"(min-width: 1040px) 1040px,(min-width: 720px) 720px,450px\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-video__overlay\"><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<time class=\"c-video__duration\">3:04<\/time><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-video__title\">2025 budget leaves \u2018little room\u2019 for future risks, watchdog finds<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The federal government\u2019s \u201cpersistent delays\u201d in appointing new fiscal watchdogs were highlighted as a shortcoming in an otherwise glowing review of Canada\u2019s parliamentary budget office published last week by the Organization for Economic Co operation and Development.<\/p>\n<section id=\"content-dynamic-trending-stories\" class=\"l-inlineStories l-inlineStories--tile u-hide-tablet-landscape\" aria-label=\"Dynamic trending stories section\">\n<p>\n\t\t<span class=\"l-inlineStories__title c-heading c-heading--strikethrough\">Trending Now<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<ul class=\"l-inlineStories__posts c-posts c-posts--inline \">\n<li class=\"c-posts__item\">\n<div class=\"c-posts__media \">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<img class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" data-src=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/donald-trump-iran-update.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=336&amp;h=224&amp;crop=1\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"c-posts__details\">\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-posts__headlineText\" title=\"Trump says Iran war timeline is likely 4-5 weeks but could go \u2018far longer\u2019\" data-title=\"\">Trump says Iran war timeline is likely 4-5 weeks but could go \u2018far longer\u2019<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"c-posts__item\">\n<div class=\"c-posts__media \">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<img class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" data-src=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/GettyImages-923255262-e1647089511950.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=336&amp;h=224&amp;crop=1\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"c-posts__details\">\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-posts__headlineText\" title=\"B.C. to adopt permanent daylight saving time, after springing forward one more time\" data-title=\"\">B.C. to adopt permanent daylight saving time, after springing forward one more time<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/section>\n<p>Jacques argued at the House of Commons standing committee on government operations and estimates Thursday that it would benefit Ottawa to shift the watchdog\u2019s mandate from the budget officer to the office itself to help with continuity between mandates.<\/p>\n<p>Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois MP Marie-H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Gaudreau told the same committee in French that the federal government\u2019s failure to date to name a replacement PBO is \u201cunacceptable\u201d with Jacques\u2019 term coming to a close.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-ad c-ad--bigbox l-article__ad\">\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Jacques\u2019 tenure heading up the budget office started with a bang in September as he criticized the Liberal government\u2019s fiscal track as \u201cunsustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Later, when Liberals tabled their 2025 federal budget, Jacques said Ottawa\u2019s debt path was broadly sustainable in the long term but argued the feds had used up some of their ability to absorb future fiscal shocks.<\/p>\n<p>He also pushed for a new independent body to clarify definitions of capital spending under the Liberals\u2019 new budget framework.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-tabs\">\n<p>\n\t\t\t<button role=\"tab\" class=\"c-tabs__tab c-tabs__tab--active\" type=\"button\">More on Money<\/button><br \/>\n\t\t\t<button role=\"tab\" class=\"c-tabs__tab\" type=\"button\">More videos<\/button>\n\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>#federal #budget #watchdog #Ottawa #interim #PBOs #term #expires #National<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Descrease article font size Increase article font size There is currently no parliamentary budget officer scrutinizing federal finances in Ottawa as the interim fiscal watchdog\u2019s term expired Monday without a successor in place. The PBO is an independent agent of Parliament tasked with analyzing federal budgets, spending proposals and election campaign promises to raise the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[153,60,3851,3854,1233,3852,17,50,20,3850,3853,18,3601,429],"class_list":{"0":"post-3908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-budget","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canada-politics","11":"tag-expires","12":"tag-federal","13":"tag-interim","14":"tag-money","15":"tag-national","16":"tag-ottawa","17":"tag-parliamentary-budget-officer","18":"tag-pbos","19":"tag-politics","20":"tag-term","21":"tag-watchdog"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}