The Liberals are restoring the power Parliament unwittingly lost a decade ago to approve the billions of dollars the government borrows every year to finance its debt.

The Liberal government met an election promise to restore Parliament’s borrowing authority in last week’s budget as part of its promise to “enhance transparency and accountability” on borrowing for Parliament and Canadians.

Parliament annually reviewed all the government’s borrowing until 2007, when a clause taking away that authority — buried in the Conservatives’ omnibus budget bill — slipped through unchallenged and removed more than a century of parliamentary scrutiny.

Since then, the finance minister has had the authority to borrow and fund Canada’s debt without going to Parliament for permission.

The change was made at time when no one expected Canada would be ever be running deficits again. The government was awash in surpluses; the balance sheet was stable and debt was declining.

That change, however, meant Parliament lost a key check-and-balance for holding the government to account on its financial management — and now the government is racking up deficits again.

At the same time, the government consolidated borrowing by major Crown corporations with its overall debt. Before 2007, Crown corporations could freely borrow on their own but with the change, the government could borrow on their behalf and take advantage of lower rates.

Budget documents show the government expects to borrow $286 billion this year in domestic and foreign markets.

The government will now present its budget plan to Parliament to vote on its overall policy direction, as well as a report or debt management strategy explaining what it expects to borrow and why.

The government typically borrows money to refinance mature government debt, implement budget measures and finance federal operations.

The Liberals set the stage for repealing the Conservative legislative change in last year’s budget when they introduced an amendment to the Financial Administration Act to repeal cabinet’s power to approve all borrowing. That amendment will kick in once legislation to implement the budget is passed.

The amendment also requires that the finance minister not allow the debt of Crown corporations to exceed limits that are set in legislation.

Giving Parliament its borrowing authority back also will shine a spotlight on the additional cash the government will need to borrow to finance its operations and budgetary measures — an amount that has been going up as the deficit increases.

Last year, the government borrowed $21 billion, and $19.5 billion the year before that, without having to go to Parliament for approval. The budget projected the government would borrow about $39 billion this year and $34 billion in 2018-19 that will now need a nod from MPs and senators.

Senator Lowell Murray fought to reverse the 2007 legislative change until he retired, arguing Parliament’s loss of borrowing authority was another blow to Parliament’s main source of authority — “the power of the purse.”

Murray and Senator Tommy Banks were the first to discover the clause in the 2007 budget bill, which caught both MPs and senators unaware when the bill passed. It was part of the whole debate over how MPs and senators could be expected to exercise proper oversight when swamped with omnibus bills covering a myriad of legislative changes.

At the time, academics accused the Conservatives of doing an “end run” around the normal legislative process by using an omnibus bill to make changes that had noting to do with the budget. Others likened it to the government giving cabinet the power to change tax rates without seeking approval of Parliament.

Murray unsuccessfully appealed to the Conservative government to restore Parliament’s authority and introduced a private member’s bill to undo it. The bill died several times on the order paper.

At the time, bureaucrats claimed the change was purely administrative in nature and done to give the government more “flexibility and transparency” in borrowing. A key cited reason was the need to consolidate the borrowing of the Business Development Bank, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and Farm Credit Canada with the government’s own borrowing.

By 2015, the Parliamentary Budget Officer had flagged a major growth spurt in federal loans and other “non-budgetary” spending in the years since the government took over the administration of borrowing for Crown corporations.

The Crown corporations were the biggest non-budgetary spenders — particularly Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Export Development Corporation, Farm Credit Corporation and the Business Development Bank.

The PBO flagged the growth so MPs and senators were aware of its magnitude, given that the government could now bypass their approval. Some also asked whether the government was using loans and guarantees as a ‘back door’ way to implement programs. The Conservatives were hell-bent on eliminating the deficit, largely by cutting direct program spending, and loans are not up-front cash costs like program spending.

MPs are responsible for overseeing public spending but the big complaint for years has been about the main estimates, the government’s yearly spending plan for delivering programs and services — which gets little scrutiny. Non-budgetary spending gets even less.

Treasury Board President Scott Brison took up the longstanding challenge of overhauling the Estimates process and has been able to make some changes, but those that required Parliament’s permission met resistance from MPs who fear they won’t have enough time to scrutinize spending.

Opposition MPs are particularly concerned about Brison’s proposal to delay tabling the Estimates until May 1 so they can reflect the spending outlined in the budget.