What is the cost of all these promises made by the federal political parties during the election campaign? To provide some answers, the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) is once again launching its service to assess the cost of proposals for the September elections.

These are nonpartisan estimates of the cost “to help citizens vote in an informed manner,” says PBO, an “independent financial analyst in Parliament.”

This service was first introduced in the 2019 federal election.

The PBO then succeeded in estimating the cost of more than 200 proposals, at the request of the political parties, and published about 100 proposals with their consent.

However, only federal political parties can take advantage of this service and not citizens who question the cost of the procedure.

“In the recent elections, we noted a real desire on the part of political parties to use our service to evaluate the cost of proposed actions. An independent, non-partisan evaluation of the cost of proposals submitted during the election campaign promotes greater transparency and helps to enhance confidence in the political process,” declared the PBO, Yves Giroud, in statment.

Canadian voters will also have access to cost estimates published on the PBO website.

The mandate of the PBO is to provide Parliament with independent, non-partisan analysis of the budget, estimates and other documents, as well as on matters of particular importance to the state of finances or the economy of the country.

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