The estimates don’t make sense

Scott Clark and Peter DeVries explain how to fix the estimates process.

Ask the President of the Treasury Board about whether spending will be going up or down in 2013-14 and he’ll tell you that it’s going down.  Ask the Minister of Finance and he’ll say it’s going up.  Who is right and why the conflicting answers?  The Minister of Finance will likely be more accurate than the President of the Treasury Board. But why the confusion and why can’t Canadians and Parliamentarians get a straight answer?

See previously: Do you know how your federal government is spending your money?, ‘The fact is no one in Parliament can tell Canadians what the government is planning to spend‘ and ‘Parliament has lost control of the estimate process’