Government phasing out an unwanted and irksome parliamentary watchdog.
by Geoffrey Stevens
Back in 2006, when Stephen Harper was still in opposition and was campaigning for the keys to 24 Sussex Drive, he was all for open government. He was wedded to the principles of transparency and accountability. Yes, sirree. A Conservative government would be different. The Conservatives would open all the windows; they would expose the entrails of government so that Canadians could see what they were getting for their votes and taxes.
The Access to Information Act would be made to work the way it was meant to. A Public Appointments Commission would be created to monitor patronage. And a Parliamentary Budget Officer would be appointed to serve Parliament as its watchdog over government spending.
A career bureaucrat who proved to be unafraid to speak truth to power, Kevin Page has done stellar work with limited resources.
A career bureaucrat who proved to be unafraid to speak truth to power, Page has done stellar work with limited resources. He informed Parliament that the cost of the Afghanistan war would be more than double the defence department’s estimate. He discovered that the government was low-balling the investment needed for First Nations education. And he revealed that the true cost those F-35 fighter jets will be double or triple the $16 billion claimed by the defence department.
You might think the people who created the post — the Harper Tories — would be delighted with a job well done. Or, if not delighted, at least supportive. You’d be wrong. In his five years, Page has been shunned by the Conservative establishment.
He has been publicly abused by at least three cabinet ministers. He has been denied information he needs to do his job. Effectively, he has been sent to Coventry by finance department bureaucrats who resent an outsider, especially a non-partisan servant of Parliament, poaching on their turf.
Kevin Page’s five years expire next week. He was not offered an extension. The government is running newspaper ads inviting applications for a successor. The ads are misleading — not for what they say, but for what they fail to say.
They say the government is looking for a “strategic and innovative leader,” an “effective communicator” with managerial experience, integrity and the “ability to develop and maintain constructive relationships among senior decision-makers in a highly stressful environment.”
The ad makes the Parliamentary Budget Officer sound like a very important person, which is true, and a powerful person, which is not so true. The new PBO will only be as powerful as the Harper cabinet is prepared to let him or her be.
The government has classified the job as a GCQ-5, which is a mid-level position, the equivalent of a director-general in a department. Remuneration is not mentioned in the ad. It’s between $139,000 and $164,500, which is peanuts in the private sector for anyone with the professional qualifications the government is looking for; and it’s not much money in the public sector these days.
In fact, it is less than government has been paying Kevin Page. He was an assistant deputy minister when he was appointed and the government let him retain his salary grade. It promised to reclassify the position upward, but never did.
Sonia L’Heureux, the parliamentary librarian, becomes the interim budget officer when Page leaves next week. Meanwhile, the search continues for someone who is prepared to sign on for five years of controversy, stress, occasional abuse and frequent non-support by the people who hire him or her.
Harper must regret ever promising a parliamentary budget officer. His people rue the day they chose Kevin Page. Now they are looking for someone, probably a civil servant, who will be cheap, compliant and not make any waves — until they can quietly phase out the watchdog.
As Page himself says, “I would not put any money on this office existing after five years.”
About Geoffrey Stevens
Cambridge resident Geoffrey Stevens, an author and former Ottawa columnist and managing editor of the Globe and Mail, teaches political science at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Guelph. He welcomes comments at the address below. This article appeared in the Waterloo Region Record and the Guelph Mercury.
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