For instance, if we calculate the cost of an electoral platform, or of a measure—it could be just a measure, although we prefer to cost the entire platform—I can provide the information to a political party, and that party must advise us, in writing, if it intends to use our data. Afterwards we will release our report. The legislation allows us to do that.

After the election, we will publish a report. In fact, we must submit an annual report to both speakers in the beginning of the year, i.e. 30 days before the end of the fiscal year. We also plan to prepare a report on the election, that is a report on how things were done. The point is to provide food for thought to the parliamentary debate on the quality of this legislation, which is relatively strict for us. That is one of the important changes.

As for the second change which I alluded to, it explains the increase in our budget. Currently, we can process three types of requests. We can generate our own reports during a given year—not necessarily an election year, but any year generally. The reports on the government's taxation and fiscal soundness are an example. Parliamentary committees may also submit requests for cost analyses.

Four other committees may also submit requests to us. They are mentioned in the act, and they are the Standing Senate Committee on Finance, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, and the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance. These four committees may submit specific requests regarding economic trends or any other macroeconomic analysis. All of the other committees may request analyses on the cost of measures being examined by Parliament.

And finally, all of the senators and members of Parliament may also request analyses on the cost of certain measures, for instance a motion, a private member's bill or a government bill. What has changed since 2017 is that the act now states that we “shall” carry out an analysis when a request is submitted to us. Previously, we had a choice; we could say to a member or a senator that we could or could not do what they asked. Now, the word “shall” is used throughout the act. This imposes an obligation, which is extremely difficult, hence the importance of having a few more people to carry out these cost analyses.

In conclusion, both the International Monetary Fund, in its analysis of independent financial institutions, as well as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the OECD, have stated that cost analyses, for the entire network of PBO offices in the world, represent the most time-consuming task for a team of analysts. So clearly, we need more people to carry out the cost analyses and allow us to comply with the legislative requirement.

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