OTTAWA—A parliamentary watchdog who has repeatedly locked horns with the government over his probes of federal spending has overstepped his mandate, says Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird.

The federal Conservatives are locked in a showdown with Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page after refusing to turn over details of their sweeping budget cuts. Page has also raised red flags about Ottawa's spending on F-35 fighter jets and its crime agenda.

When pressed in the Commons Tuesday over the Tories’ refusal to cooperate, Baird suggested that Page had overstepped his bounds in doing his job.

“I have to say with great respect, I believe that from time to time and on occasion the Parliamentary Budget Office has overstepped its mandate,” Baird said.

That sparked a fast reaction from opposition MPs, who said the Conservatives appear bent on undermining the very office they created to provide independent oversight of federal finances.

“It’s completely preposterous to suggest that when a parliamentary budgetary authority asks for information from government departments he’s somehow overstepping his bounds,” said Liberal interim leader Bob Rae.

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair said Baird’s comment should be seen as a clear warning that Conservatives don’t like Page’s independent views.

“It’s a warning that Kevin Page has made the ultimate mistake — he doesn’t tell the Conservatives what they want to hear,” Mulcair told reporters.

Baird’s comment comes one day after Page’s office released a legal opinion declaring that the government has broken the law by refusing to hand over the information.

Only 18 of 82 departments and agencies responded to his request for additional information as he sought to analyze the fallout from the March budget and its sweeping plans to cut spending.

The two lawyers who wrote the opinion argue that under the Parliament of Canada Act, deputy ministers are required to provide “free and timely access to financial or economic data” to the parliamentary budget officer.

Asked about Baird’s comment, Page said he can barely keep up with his office’s sweeping responsibility — analysis of the economy, federal finances and costing of programs.

“How can I overstep that mandate. That mandate is huge relative to my resource base and staff,” Page said.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“The think that keeps me up at night is that we just don’t have the capacity.”

Asked to provide specific examples of where Page had overstepped his mandate, Baird’s office referred the question to Treasury Board President Tony Clement, but Clement’s office did not respond to the query.

Read more about: