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OTTAWA — Canada’s budget watchdog is cautioning Bill Morneau against potentially “cynical” accounting changes as the finance minister seeks to alter how federal deficits are calculated.

The proposed changes come after the Liberals this week announced an unexpectedly high deficit of $26.6 billion.

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The federal deficit is currently measured using various “bottom-line” numbers. Morneau has proposed introducing a second method that tallies “operational” spending that would exclude things like federal pensions, which this week helped push the deficit higher.

In an interview Thursday, Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux said he was “concerned” about the proposed changes. He said the adjustment could improve fiscal transparency, but worried Finance officials might later roll back those same changes as a way to manufacture rosier deficit projections.

“It could be seen as a bit cynical by the public,” he said. “You would be changing the definition of a deficit when it suits you, which is not good for public confidence in government numbers.”