None of the three parties committed to releasing a platform before the debates, when asked by The Globe and Mail.The Canadian Press
The federal Liberals, Conservatives and NDP are using the Parliamentary Budget Officer to help cost out their election promises, but none have yet promised to release their full platforms before next week’s leaders’ debates.
The 2025 election campaign is the third to operate under a legislative change that expanded the role of the arm’s-length PBO to include costing specific election promises.
The rules allow the parties to ask the PBO for a confidential costing analysis of a specific promise, which can only be released with the permission of the party that requested it. The PBO only costs specific pledges – it does not assess a party’s entire platform.
Election campaigns typically involve party leaders announcing standalone promises in the opening weeks, followed by the release of a platform that compiles all the promises in a single document. That document reveals how they would be paid for and how they would affect Ottawa’s bottom line.
The two leaders’ debates will be held next week in Montreal – the French-language debate Wednesday and the English-language debate Thursday – less than two weeks before the April 28 election.
None of the three parties committed to releasing a platform before the debates when asked by The Globe and Mail. However, all three said they are working with the PBO team on costing promises.
The three parties have all made large campaign promises, but their leaders have said the details of how those costs will be managed won’t be disclosed until their platforms are released.
“We don’t really know how they’re going to pay for them,” said former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page, who is now president of the University of Ottawa’s Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy. The institute will be releasing its own analysis of the party platforms, determining whether they are based on realistic assumptions, responsible fiscal management and transparency.
What the Globe-CTV-Nanos numbers show ahead of April 28’s vote
Given that the PBO could only start reviewing costing requests once the campaign started, Mr. Page said it creates a tight timeline. However, he said the public would benefit from having the platforms available before next week’s debates.
“I think at this point, sooner rather than later is better, and before the debate – so they can become part of the debates – is best,” he said.
In the last federal election, both the Liberals and Conservatives released their platforms before the leaders’ debates, while the NDP released a platform outline before the campaign started but waited until after the debates to release a detailed costing.
In 2019, the first campaign in which the PBO costing system was in place, then-Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer often released specific PBO costing notes on the same day a promise was made. He also released several additional costing notes on the day his platform was released. In 2021, under then-Leader Erin O’Toole, the party changed tack and released all its PBO costing notes on the same day the platform was released.
The Liberal Party under Justin Trudeau waited to release its PBO costing reports on the same day its platform was released in both the 2019 and 2021 election campaigns, whereas the NDP released a smaller number of PBO reports tied to specific announcements and then released larger numbers on the days it released its platforms.
Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux, who reports to Parliament as an independent officer, is not commenting to the media during the election campaign.
He released a report last month that projected the federal deficit for the fiscal year that started April 1 will be $42-billion, an estimate that can be used by parties as a starting point for their platforms.
That deficit estimate did not include any assumptions related to U.S. tariff policies.
Mr. Page said the parties should consider using lower assumptions than the PBO for economic growth or including prudence reserves in their platform forecasts, given the broader context of the global economy.
“We need to see the platforms to address this issue of fiscal responsibility,” he said. “There’s just so much uncertainty.”