The Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
The Parliamentary Budget Officer is supported by the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, which at the moment comprises about 40 staff members.
The PBO provides independent, authoritative and non-partisan financial and economic analysis. In doing so, the PBO supports parliamentarians in carrying out their constitutional roles of scrutinizing the raising and spending of public monies and generally overseeing the government’s activities.
The PBO strives to be responsive to the needs and concerns of parliamentarians who are always welcome to ask questions related to any aspect of our mandate.
Values
The Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer contributes to Canadian parliamentary democracy by serving Parliament with integrity and respect, in accordance with our core values:
Independence
We ensure independence by providing non partisan analysis and by keeping Parliament as a whole informed of our results.
Trust
We uphold trust by promoting mutual respect and ethical conduct, by maintaining transparency in our analyses, and by demonstrating fairness and courtesy to parliamentarians, the government, other various partners and the public.
Commitment to Excellence
We achieve excellence in all aspects of our operations by delivering relevant and timely analysis as well as innovative and professional services.
The Values and Ethics Code provides further guidance on a broad range of standards of conduct expected of employees of the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer.
Quality Assurance
We seek to adhere to the highest standards and are committed to continuous improvement in all areas of its operations. We ensure the quality of our work in a variety of ways.
First, we publish full reports that include details on how we arrived at our findings. This means that our work is subject to public scrutiny.
Second, we hire highly qualified and dedicated staff. Most are economists or financial analysts with advanced degrees and years of experience in the public service.
Third, where advisable, we use external peer review of our work.
To whom are we accountable?
The PBO is accountable to Parliament.
On a transitional basis, the Office continues to operate in compliance with the Library of Parliament’s contracting rules and will continue to proactively disclose on our website all contracts of more than $10,000 and all travel and hospitality expenses.