OTTAWA - Canada's outspoken budget watchdog warns he may have to shut down his office if funding he was promised is withheld.
Parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page told a House committee Tuesday that he still has not been given any indication he will be given the $2.8 million earmarked for his office this year.
And if he doesn't get it, he said he won't be able to retain the qualified staff needed to prepare his reports on government expenditures on everything from budget reality checks to the bottom-line costs of the Afghan war.
"We have a small team of 15 people and four or five on (loan from other departments)," he said.
"If we don't have that critical mass, it's my recommendation that the Parliamentary Budget Office be shut down."
The office was created by the Conservatives two years ago to give parliamentarians independent contextual information for budget projections. But almost immediately, Page and his staff have proven to be a burr in the government's saddle.
Publicly and privately, Conservative MPs have complained that Page has been overly adversarial. The Conservatives were particularly incensed that the budget office released an accounting of the Afghan war costs, something the government refused to do.
Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett and her senate colleague Sharon Carstairs were among those who said Page had gotten too big for his britches, complaining he had released reports to the public without prior approval and had raised a public stink about his budget.
As a result, the House and Senate committee gave Page marching orders on how to run his office, which Page said he responded to at the end of September.
The Liberals have since changed their tune, however, and now want the budget officer to become an independent officer of Parliament, rather than an agent of the Library of Parliament.
"I've spoken to people on our side on this matter and they are going to push this matter," said Liberal finance critic John McCallum. "We think he does excellent work."
A spokesperson for the library said the issue of the office's budget and whether Page has followed the rules will likely be discussed when the issue returns before the House library committee, which she said will be soon.
But NDP critic Thomas Mulcair said he believes the library head William Young is taking its cues from a hostile Harper government.
Transport Minister John Baird's stunt of dumping 4,476 pages -- and no computerized records -- at the budget office last week in response to a request for information on Ottawa's stimulus spending was an indication of the government's feelings, Mulcair said.
"One is forced to conclude that John Baird was expressing the contempt of the Conservative government against someone who has proven again and again more capable than the Minister of Finance (Jim Flaherty) in providing valid financial information," he said.
Page would not attribute blame for his funding problems, saying the question was for others to answer.
Despite the apparent antagonism, Page had one Conservative defender in committee Tuesday -- MP Ted Menzies. The parliamentary secretary to Flaherty greeted the budget officer with, "You absolutely do good work."
Page released a report on Monday which questioned whether Ottawa's plan to eliminate the deficit in a reasonable time is tenable. The report said the government would still be $20 billion in the hole in five year's time.
On Tuesday, he questioned whether the government will be able to spend the $16-billion infrastructure stimulus within the two years timeline imposed by the budget.
He said municipalities, which be letting out most of the construction projects, will be hit with an impossible crush next summer in trying to spend all the funds, and that a sizable portion of the stimulus may be left on the table.
"There is risk we'll lapse significant amount of money. The government may wish to explore the timelines for the program," he said. Page is calling for a one-year extension of the program.
He also questioned whether Ottawa's stimulus will create or save the 220,000 jobs it claims, even if all the money is spent.
One out of every three infrastructure dollars earmarked for spending over the past two years wound up unspent, Page said in later testimony to the Senate banking committee.
