Category : Additional Analyses

On July 24, 2020 the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) reported on costs incurred from the Government’s policy of allowing employees to use pay code 699 paid leave for other reasons. Guidance from the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) allowed for employees to request 699 leave for a variety of reasons including being sick with COVID-19, having to quarantine, not being able to access the technology they need to complete their work, and having to care for dependents.

To assist parliamentarians’ deliberations in the context of a post-COVID economic recovery, this blog post summarizes PBO’s estimates of potential impacts of government spending and tax measures on the Canadian economy. We also provide estimates of the sensitivity of the budgetary balance to various types of economic shocks.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in many Canadians working from home, the government introduced a simplified flat rate home office expense deduction for the 2020 tax year. This will allow taxpayers to claim deductions up to $400, based on the length of time working from home, without the need to track detailed expenses. This blog post provides supplementary information to the PBO’s Costing Note published on 4 February 2021 on the Simplifying the Home Office Expense Deduction.

The objective of this blog post is to illustrate the increased sensitivity of public debt charges to interest rate shocks and summarize the status of the Government’s plan to borrow at longer maturities.

This blog post highlights the implicit assumptions used in FES 2020 and approximates a 7-year outlook for the EI Operating Account.

This blog post provides supplementary information on the qualifying provinces and their respective payments underlying PBO’s 20 January 2021 costing of the Fiscal Stabilization Program (FSP).

The federal government’s Fall Economic Statement 2020 (FES 2020) was released on November 30, 2020.  It includes numerous new and extended spending measures and programs.

Consistent with the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO)’s mandate to provide independent, non-partisan analysis to Parliament, the PBO has prepared cost estimates of selected measures contained in the federal government’s FES 2020.

After the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) released the cost estimate for Bill C 7 (medical assistance in dying), he was asked to identify federal investments in palliative care made since Canada had legalized medical assistance in dying.

On July 24, 2020 the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) reported on costs incurred from the Government’s policy of allowing employees to use pay code 699 paid leave for other reasons. Guidance from the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) allowed for employees to request 699 leave for a variety of reasons including being sick with COVID-19, having to quarantine, not being able to access the technology they need to complete their work, and having to care for dependents.

Our original cost estimate included data up to the end of May 2020 for 62 of the 88 federal public service organizations governed by the Financial Administration Act Schedules I, IV and V. The Government subsequently shared monthly data from March to June 2020 for 72 of the 89 federal public service organizations through information request IR0504 (July 2020). Using these data, our office published an updated cost estimate on August 24, 2020.

On July 7, 2020, the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) reported on costs arising from the implementation of a guaranteed income program for the last six months of 2020-21. The program parameters were based on Ontario’s basic income pilot project. PBO presented three estimates based on scenarios that phase out the benefit by $0.50, $0.25 and $0.15 for each dollar of employment income. Additionally, participants receiving Employment Insurance or Canada Pension Plan payments would have their basic income reduced dollar for dollar.