Kevin Page, Parliamentary Budget Officer, is turning out to be a key player in Ottawa - some might say the only person left there with any credibility at all. Set up by the Tories as part of their "accountability" package he fast lost favor with them when he showed how much Flaherty had underestimated the budget deficit.
It used to be that the Governor of the Bank of Canada was considered impartial but this one seems to say what the government wants to hear.
Quote:
Review of cost analysis of EI reform could set the stage for a fall election
Ignatieff has opportunity to put forward a no-confidence motion in late September if he is not happy with the working group's results
Ottawa
Liberals have stroked the potential trigger of a fall election by asking Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page to examine what they say is an inflated Conservative cost analysis of their plan to revamp employment insurance.
Conservative and Liberal MPs who are part of a working group formed to discuss changes to the EI system said progress was made at a closed-door session Thursday. They agreed to get together again in two weeks for another round of negotiations.
Liberal Human Resources critic Mike Savage, one of the working group's co-chairs, said bureaucrats have been asked in the meantime to work on some proposals “that might move the ball.”
But Mr. Savage has also written a letter to Mr. Page requesting an assessment of Conservative calculations that peg the cost of the Liberal proposal to create uniform national standards for EI qualification at up to $4-billion....
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nat ... le1259259/
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