{"id":334972,"date":"2021-09-02T21:40:17","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T18:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/federal-election-2021-hey-conservatives-wheres-your-platform-costing\/"},"modified":"2021-09-02T21:40:17","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T18:40:17","slug":"federal-election-2021-hey-conservatives-wheres-your-platform-costing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/federal-election-2021-hey-conservatives-wheres-your-platform-costing\/","title":{"rendered":"#Federal election 2021: Hey Conservatives, where’s your platform costing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Federal election 2021: Hey Conservatives, where’s your platform costing?<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n Paul Wells: Two parties have managed to get at least part of their platforms costed and cleared for public release by the PBO, but not the third?\n <\/div>\n
\n [This post has been UPDATED, since its original publication, below \u2014 pw<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s something curious. I\u2019ve asked the Conservative Party about this, but their media<\/a> office isn\u2019t even acknowledging receipt of my query, so I\u2019ll just put the questions here.<\/p>\n

This is the second federal election in which the non-partisan Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) has had a role in adjudicating political parties\u2019 claims about the costs of their big platform promises. Here\u2019s how it works. Parties submit their platforms to the PBO, not in their entirety but in discrete chunks, and the PBO works out an estimate about how much each plank in the platform would cost. Then the PBO sends the estimates back to the parties, and when the parties give their consent<\/em>, the PBO posts the cost estimates on its own website.<\/p>\n

All of this is mightily complicated by the fact that this is a snap election, called when the Liberals felt like calling it. In a fixed election, the PBO would have up to 120 days before the beginning of the election to work on estimates, assuming parties submitted their plans long enough in advance. In this snap election, the PBO could only begin working on estimates when the campaign began, and is required to finish its work before Sept. 20. That\u2019s five weeks instead of four months. Less than five weeks, in fact, because the PBO must send costing to the parties in time for them to clear its public release.<\/p>\n

How\u2019s the process going?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the page where the PBO posts its cost estimates.<\/a> At this writing, mid-day on Sept. 2, it includes costing for 11 substantial Liberal promises, and one from the NDP\u2014a big one, the party\u2019s pharmacare proposal.<\/p>\n

Where are the estimates for Conservative Party promises?<\/p>\n

The Conservatives submitted their proposals to the PBO on or before Monday morning, Aug. 16\u2014the second day of the campaign. We know this because that\u2019s the day the Conservatives publicly released their platform, whose last page reads: \u201cCanada\u2019s Recovery Plan has been costed internally and is currently being reviewed by Canada\u2019s Parliamentary Budget Office, whose costing will be included in subsequent editions.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was 17 days ago. Two other parties have submitted their promises to the budget office, either at the same time as the Conservatives or later, received estimates and cleared the public release of those estimates. Why haven\u2019t the Conservatives?<\/p>\n

The PBO wouldn\u2019t answer my questions about the status of any<\/em> party\u2019s costing, except to remind me of the general<\/a> process as I\u2019ve described it above. They say it\u2019s up to parties to decide when their numbers are released.<\/p>\n

So I sent this email on Wednesday to the Conservative media office.<\/p>\n

Hi,<\/p>\n

The Liberals authorized the PBO to release costing for several of their platform planks today. He\u2019s had your platform in hand for at least as long as theirs. Has he costed any of your platform? If so, why isn\u2019t that public and when will it be?\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When I didn\u2019t get an answer to that query after four hours, I sent a reminder. Now it\u2019s a day later and I\u2019ve heard nothing. Maybe they didn\u2019t like my tone.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the question stands even though it hasn\u2019t been answered. Why have two parties managed to get at least part of their platforms costed and cleared for public release, but not the third? For that matter, since the Conservatives\u2019 platform had already \u201cbeen costed internally\u201d\u2014a normal process for any party, and one which requires no participation by the Parliamentary Budget Officer or anyone else\u2014why have they still not released their own internal costing?<\/p>\n

The campaign\u2019s half over. Erin O\u2019Toole may be Canada\u2019s next prime minister. Shouldn\u2019t he tell us what that\u2019ll cost?<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

[UPDATE, Thursday afternoon:<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Thirty minutes after this post went online, I got an email from Mathew Clancy at the Conservative Party\u2019s campaign media office asking to chat. I gave him a call. Here\u2019s what he told me.<\/p>\n

(1) He\u2019s sorry they didn\u2019t get back to me about my emails.<\/p>\n

(2) The Conservatives have received costing for some<\/em> of the platform elements they sent to the Parliamentary Budget Office. Some but not all.<\/p>\n

(3) When they have received costing for everything<\/em> they sent to the PBO, they\u2019ll authorize its public release, all at once. And not before. Clancy said he doesn\u2019t want to release this stuff piecemeal. The PBO, he said, has only posted estimates pertaining to 11% of projected Liberal spending. That\u2019s not a complete picture.<\/p>\n

(4) So then I said, Mathew, the reason you know it\u2019s 11% of the Liberals\u2019 projected spending is that the Liberals have posted their own<\/em> projected spending. Which any party can do. Why not do that?<\/p>\n

(5) So then he<\/em> says, parties\u2019 own estimates invariably clash with the PBO\u2019s estimates, and then you get into a back-and-forth, and nobody wants that. \u201cThe PBO is the gold standard.\u201d So they\u2019re content to authorize the PBO to post all of the PBO\u2019s estimates, once they\u2019re all in.<\/p>\n

So there you have it. Of course we\u2019ll keep you posted.
\n<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n