The Senate resolved into a Committee of the Whole in order to receive Annette Ryan respecting her nomination to the position of Parliamentary Budget Officer.

Senator White: Thank you for being here today, Ms. Ryan.

As others have noted, your CV and your experience are exceptional. Also, as a senator from Newfoundland and Labrador, I was particularly delighted to learn that you were raised on the island portion of our province.

I was also pleased to see that Kevin Page, who was the first Parliamentary Budget Officer, wrote a glowing endorsement of your nomination. He also said:

PBO will be pushed and pulled in in different ways — on the fiscal stance of the government in an uncertain economic outlook; on prospects for hitting fiscal targets in a period of unprecedented increases in defence spending; on due diligence for major capital projects; on promoting fiscal transparency on complex public-private projects.

Can you give us an overview of how you intend to tackle these challenges he has outlined?

Ms. Ryan: Thank you, senator. To the first part of your question, as a Newfoundlander, I enjoy a good scrap; it’s a plus for the job, senator.

In terms of your second question, which is more substantive, for all these questions, I would start by trying to outline, for a given policy proposal, project or program, what the government has said it wishes to achieve, and how it has said it plans to go about it. In working with the staff of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, or PBO, as well as consulting widely with departments, thought leaders, and so on, I think the PBO can break that issue down into the risks of that plan. What are the possible unintended consequences of the way the government plans to go about it? What are the key milestones the government sees for itself in obtaining a given outcome?

By helping to frame the issues in respect to each of those types of plans and circumstances that you ran through, the PBO can set forward mini agendas of challenge function for the government, which, in some cases, will involve numerical calculations, analysis, and so on; but perhaps, for smaller, shorter issues, sheets about budgetary issues might help.