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Canada’s budget watchdog has some of the missing data Parliament needs to scrutinize the Liberal government’s budget but says it couldn’t disclose those numbers in its latest report because they are confidential.

Mostafa Askari, the assistant parliamentary budget officer, confirmed that Finance Canada officials handed over figures behind the budget’s five-year cost estimates but later warned the Parliamentary Budget Office those numbers were “confidential” and couldn’t be used in the report.

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The PBO issued its report on the budget Wednesday, flagging the missing data and concluding the budget wasn’t as transparent as those of previous governments. It didn’t mention that it had some of the missing data.

Five-year cost estimates have been disclosed in every budget for at least the past 12 years, under both Stephen Harper’s and Paul Martin’s governments, and were not previously considered confidential.

“We think it should be public and there’s no reason for that information to be hidden or considered confidential,” said Askari. “It should be part of the budget, and why they decided not to release it is a different question.”

It’s a twist for the PBO, which under the previous Conservative government had to go to court to get information on the 2012 budget cuts. Now, with a Liberal government promising openness and transparency, it has the information but can’t use it.