Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) Yves Giroux says his office has some concerns about the nearly $800 million worth of new “non-announced” spending measures to be implemented over the next several years that were identified by the federal government in its most recent budget.
Giroux told MPs on the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance on April 18 that tracking the source of the funding could be problematic going forward as the money was not earmarked in Budget 2023 for any specific spending measures.
“The concern we have is that when the spending gets announced publicly, it’s very difficult to trace it back to the source of funds,” he said. “Was it Budget 2023? Was it Budget 2022? And so it’s very difficult to figure out what was the source of funds and is this new funding when it finally gets announced.”…