Being an ordinary member of Parliament is a tough job. There is the travel, the long hours in Ottawa away from family and friends, and the distance from cabinet decision-making.
However, although they don’t exercise it very often, ordinary MPs from both opposition and government parties actually have a very important power: the power to scrutinize government spending.
This is the time of year ministers and senior officials begin appearing before parliamentary committees on the “estimates.” As a former deputy minister who has appeared to discuss department spending, I know it is a great time for MPs to give those scrutiny muscles a workout.
It’s not easy to understand government accounting or the so-called estimates process the government uses to present its spending information to Parliament. Even experts have a hard time. Treasury Board Minister Tony Clement recently said he was looking at reforming the process.
In the meantime, a few simple questions will go a long way to informing MPs about what is going on inside departments. Here is a list of five questions suitable for both opposition and government members to ask. Knowing the answers to these questions will give MPs real insight into department activities and spending.
1. What is the total amount you are planning to spend this year, and how does it compare with your total spending in the previous two years?
This seems like a pretty straightforward question, but it is not. The current estimates process reveals only a portion of government spending details at budget time. This is one place where Clement might be turning his attention for reforms. Departments submit a full-year budget proposal to the minister of finance. Why not ask for information about the whole year?
2. In what areas are you planning to spend more or less this year compared with the previous two years, and how will those changes affect the services and the grants and contributions you provide?
The implications of spending changes are what most citizens really care about. Departments should be able to tell MPs where they plan to spend more (sometimes highlighted in the budget) and where they plan to spend less (sometimes not highlighted in the budget). If this is what most citizens care about, why not find out on their behalf?
3. What is the total number of people you are planning to employ this year, and how does it compare with your total employment in the previous two years?
The effects of department spending are sometimes hard to measure. However, knowing the number of people who will be employed and what they will do is a pretty good indicator. This is part of the regular department planning, so why not ask about it?
4. Where are your employees located, and how has that changed over the previous two years?
How local services will be affected by budget changes is of great interest to MPs’ constituents. Departments prepare this information as part of their budget planning.
If asked, departments can provide the information at least by province and, in some cases, by major centre.
5. Please provide us with a list of any recommendations related to your department made by the auditor general. Which ones have not been fully implemented and why?
The auditor general gives departments lots of advice on how to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government spending. Some of it is useful and possible to implement in a world of competing priorities and constrained budgets. Some of it is not, and departments rarely get an opportunity of draw the distinction.
To get a sense of how departments are actually responding to the auditor general, MPs could ask departments about the status of his recommendations.
I agree with Clement about the need to reform the presentation of spending information to Parliament. But ordinary MPs could provide more effective oversight of government spending right now if they asked the right questions. What are we waiting for?
Paul Boothe is director of the Lawrence National Centre for Policy and Management at Western University, and a former deputy minister for Environment Canada.
