The Carney government is refusing to tell Parliament’s own Budget Office how many federal jobs it plans to cut, even as the Treasury Board president boasts about “openness” and “transparency.” Blacklock's Reporter says the move has triggered fresh accusations that Ottawa is hiding the true scale of coming layoffs and spending reductions.On November 5, the Parliamentary Budget Office asked departments for a basic breakdown of planned savings, including program-by-program personnel cuts and any expected impact on services. Treasury Board officials flatly refused to provide it.They argued that releasing the information could cause “anxiety and uncertainty” for employees. In an unsigned letter, the Board told the Budget Office it had no special right to know the details of looming layoffs and that affected workers must be informed first.“Circumventing this process by providing the information to a third party beforehand could compromise employees’ trust in the government and jeopardize the management-union relationship,” the letter said..The rejection came less than 24 hours after Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali promised MPs he was ushering in a new era of transparency. Appearing at the Commons government operations committee on November 4, Ali declared the Liberals were committed to a “trust and transparency strategy” to rebuild confidence in government.Ali also claimed the ongoing government-wide expenditure review was about ensuring Ottawa’s spending is “responsible” and that savings could be found and then reallocated to what the Liberals “spend in the priorities that matter most.”But Bloc Québécois MP Marie-Helene Gaudreau pressed him on the real extent of the cuts..“What kind of numbers are we going to see?” she asked. Ali replied that more than 100 departmental proposals were under review and insisted no decisions had been finalized.The government’s refusal to hand over job-cut data appears to contradict the law. The Parliament Of Canada Act states clearly that the Parliamentary Budget Officer is entitled to free and timely access to any information under a department’s control that is required to do the job.In 2013, the Budget Office took the matter to Federal Court after departments refused to disclose information. .The court dismissed the case on a technicality but reaffirmed that Parliament intended the Budget Officer to have “free and timely access” to financial and economic data.Parliament’s own library committee backed that view in 2015, reminding federal managers that the House of Commons has never placed limits on its power to order documents.Despite that, the Treasury Board is keeping its layoff plans behind closed doors while insisting it is committed to transparency — a contradiction that even veteran Ottawa watchers are struggling to reconcile.
