Parliamentary Budget Officer nominee Annette Ryan appears before the Standing Committee on Finance in Ottawa on Monday. Ms. Ryan was nominated for the role on March 9.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Annette Ryan, the federal government’s nominee to become the next Parliamentary Budget Officer, told MPs Monday that she will serve only a single seven-year term to ensure the independence of the position.
She also pledged to provide MPs with non-partisan analysis, pointing to her experience supporting Liberal and Conservative politicians throughout her career as a public servant focused on economic matters.
“I commit today to be a one-term PBO. I believe there are certain accountability roles in the senior public service that should not be eligible for reappointment, in the interest of maintaining the integrity and independence, 100 per cent, beyond reproach. And I believe the Parliamentary Budget Officer is such a role,” she told MPs Monday.
Ms. Ryan referenced a recent report of The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which praised the work of Canada’s PBO but recommended doing away with the option to renew the position’s seven-year term.
The OECD said the possibility of reappointment could create incentives for an incumbent leader to temper criticism or avoid contentious analysis to secure a second term.
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The government nominated Ms. Ryan on March 9. The seven-year term of the previous PBO, Yves Giroux, expired in September. The government appointed Jason Jacques as interim PBO for a six-month term that expired on March 2.
The position is currently vacant, which restricts the office’s ability to table its reports in Parliament. The PBO provides independent analysis of the government’s spending.
The government can’t move ahead with a formal appointment for a seven-year term until the nomination has been approved by majority votes in the House of Commons and the Senate.
Ms. Ryan appeared Monday before the House of Commons finance committee, which is reviewing her nomination.
In her opening statement, Ms. Ryan said she intends to provide MPs with high-quality, independent and relevant analysis so they can hold the Prime Minister and his ministers accountable.
Jason Jacques's term as interim Parliamentary Budget Officer ended March 2.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
The Conservative Party, the Bloc Québécois and the NDP had previously all urged the government to nominate Mr. Jacques on a permanent basis. They accused the government of refusing to appoint Mr. Jacques because he was outspoken at times in criticizing the government’s spending track.
The Conservatives announced before the hearing that they would be voting against Ms. Ryan’s nomination because they oppose Mr. Jacques being “removed” from the role. Conservative MP Sandra Cobena said the vote is not a comment on Ms. Ryan.
“He’s essentially being fired. He’s being removed from office for doing his job, for speaking truth to power,” she said. Mr. Jacques remains a senior official at PBO.
Conservative and Bloc MPs made a point of praising Mr. Jacques’ work during Monday’s hearing.
Ms. Ryan said she has great respect for the work of Mr. Jacques and the other previous leaders of the PBO.
Conservative finance critic Jasraj Hallan asked Ms. Ryan about her relationship with Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“It’s been reported you were at Oxford during the same time as Prime Minister Mark Carney. Just given your past relationship, how can Canadians be assured you will uphold the impartiality and independence of the PBO office if you become permanent?” he asked.
“I’ve seen the discussion of my past acquaintanceship with the Prime Minister,” Ms. Ryan replied. “I took a two-year masters of economics program at Oxford University. The Prime Minister was already there. He was in the year previous to me. As Canadians, we knew each other in the program and so on, but had different social circles,” she said.
She also said she and Mr. Carney interacted professionally when she was chief economist at Industry Canada and he was governor of the Bank of Canada.
Ms. Ryan is a deputy director at the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, or FinTRAC, the federal agency that monitors financial transactions for signs of suspicious or criminal activity.
Prior to joining FinTRAC in 2019, she was an associate deputy minister at Finance Canada and has held finance-related positions in other federal departments.
She described herself Monday as a “proud Atlantic Canadian” who grew up on a family farm in Newfoundland and then on Prince Edward Island, before serving as a page in the House of Commons in the late 1980s.
Bloc MP Jean-Denis Garon asked Ms. Ryan, 55, if she would pledge not to work in the federal government again following her term in the PBO. Ms. Ryan said she would give the question some thought and respond to the committee later.
Mr. Garon said he didn’t think there was a right or wrong answer, but he said she raised the question by pledging to only serve one term as a demonstration of independence.
Later in the hearing, Ms. Ryan said she believes her three decades of experience in the public service have prepared her “very well” for the PBO role. She said she has experience writing briefing binders for ministers ahead of their appearances before committees.
“I know the questions that they prefer that you ask them. I know the questions that they prefer you not ask them,” she said.
The committee ended after hearing from Ms. Ryan for about an hour and a half. Members did not consider a motion regarding her nomination.