The Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer will be reducing its budget by 5 per cent, despite being exempt from the federal government’s spending review.
Jason Jacques,
, told a parliamentary committee that his office would make voluntary cuts starting in the 2026-27 fiscal year, as well as an immediate $50,000 salary-reduction for the PBO.
“I take the prime minister at his word that it’s going to require sacrifices from all of us,” Jacques told the Commons government operations and estimates committee on Sept. 16. “Certainly on my end, I’m in an incredibly privileged situation where I can take a $50,000 pay cut and hopefully offset some of the operating deficit.”
will be a permanent cut to the office’s budget and will continue on an ongoing basis through the forthcoming fiscal years.
When announcing the spending cut to his office, Jacques pointed to the slumping Canadian economy that has seen around 100,000 job losses over the course of the summer.
The unemployment rate also continued to rise as Canada has grappled with U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced new spending for industrial sector relief to counterbalance struggling industries hit hard by the tariffs.
To partly pay for new spending, as well as tax cuts, Carney’s government has proposed a 15 per cent cut across most departments and agencies starting with 7.5 per cent in the 2026-27 fiscal year.
Government watchdogs, such as the PBO, will be excluded from the spending review, but it is
unclear if additional funding will be made available
to them during the three-year exercise.
Jacques told the Ottawa Citizen that the PBO will have no anticipated job losses or service level reductions with his office’s 5 per cent budget cut.
The $50,000 salary cut to Jacques’s salary will take effect immediately and will apply to the next permanent PBO’s pay, Jacques told the committee.
Jacques, who has been appointed to a six-month term as interim PBO,
replaced Yves Giroux in early September
.
Jacques said that many of the 100,000 Canadians, who lost their jobs this summer, likely don’t have a spare $50,000 to chip in to revenue streams the government is hoping will offset some of its spending promises.
The PBO also told the committee that next week they will be publishing their economic and fiscal baseline, which will include a five year forecast on their outlook of the Canadian economy and the deficit.
“Hopefully that will alleviate some of the uncertainty,” Jacques said of the economic outlook for Canada.
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