Benoît Sauvageau moved, — That Bill C-2 be amended by adding after line 3 on page 91 the following new clause:“110.1 The Act is amended by adding the following after section 15.1:
15.2 (1) The Auditor General shall, in accordance with the Public Service Employment Act, appoint a senior officer to be called the Budget Officer who shall report directly to the Auditor General.
(2) The mandate of the Budget Officer is to
(a) provide objective analysis to the Senate
and to the House of Commons about the state
of the nation’s finances and trends in the
national economy;
(b) when requested to do so by any of the
following committees, undertake research for
that committee into the nation’s finances and
economy:
(i) the Standing Committee on National
Finance of the Senate or, in the event that
there is not a Standing Committee on
National Finance, the appropriate committee
of the Senate,
(ii) the Standing Committee on Finance of
the House of Commons or, in the event that
there is not a Standing Committee on
Finance, the appropriate committee of the
House of Commons, or
(iii) the Standing Committee on Public
Accounts of the House of Commons or, in
the event that there is not a Standing
Committee on Public Accounts, the appropriate
committee of the House of Commons;
(c) when requested to do so by a member of
either House, estimate the financial cost of
proposals contained in any Bill introduced by
a member of either House other than as a
minister of the Crown; and
(d) when requested to do so by a member of
either House or by a committee of the Senate
or of the House of Commons, or a committee
of both Houses, estimate the financial cost of
any proposal that relates to a matter over
which Parliament has jurisdiction.
(3) Except as provided by any other
Act of Parliament that expressly refers to this
subsection, the Budget Officer is
entitled, by request made to the deputy head of a
department within the meaning of any of
paragraphs (a), (a.1) and (d) of the definition
“department” in section 2 of the Financial
Administration Act, or to any other person
designated by that deputy head for the purpose
of this section, to access at all convenient times
to any financial or economic data in the
possession of the department that are required
for the performance of his or her mandate.
(4) Subsection (3) does not apply in respect
of any financial or economic data
(a) that are information the disclosure of
which is restricted under section 19 of the
Access to Information Act or any provision
set out in Schedule II to that Act; or
(b) that are contained in a confidence of the
Queen’s Privy Council for Canada described
in subsection 69(1) of that Act, unless the
data are also contained in any other record,
within the meaning of section 3 of that Act,
and are not information referred to in
paragraph (a).
(5) The Budget Officer, and
every person acting on behalf or under the
direction of the Budget Officer,
shall not disclose any financial or economic data
that come to their knowledge under subsections
(3) or (4), unless the disclosure is essential for the
performance of his or her mandate and the
financial or economic data to which the
disclosure relates are not information described
in subsection 13(1), section 14 or any of
paragraphs 18(a) to (d) or 20(1)(b) to (d) of
the Access to Information Act.
(6) The Budget Officer may, in the
performance of his or her mandate, enter into
contracts, memoranda of understanding or other
arrangements in the name of his or her position.
(7) The Budget Officer may
engage on a temporary basis the services of
persons having technical or specialized knowledge
necessary for the performance of his or her
mandate.
(8) The Budget Officer may, from among persons employed in the office of the Auditor General to assist him or her, designate any
person to exercise any of the powers under
subsection (6) or (7) that the Budget Officer specifies, subject to the conditions
that the Budget Officer sets.”