Annette Ryan, a senior public servant currently serving as deputy director of Canada’s financial intelligence unit (Fintrac), has been nominated to become the next parliamentary budget officer (PBO), a key independent watchdog role tasked with providing non-partisan analysis of the federal budget. The nomination was confirmed by Wayne Long, the secretary of state for financial institutions, during a House of Commons appearance on Monday.

Background on Ryan’s Career

Ryan has held a number of senior positions across government, including as associate assistant deputy minister for Finance Canada and chief economist and director general of economic research and policy analysis for Industry Canada. She earned a bachelor of arts in mathematics from Acadian University and a master’s in economics from the University of Oxford, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Ryan’s current role at Fintrac, Canada’s financial intelligence unit and anti-money-laundering agency, has spanned since late 2019. Fintrac is responsible for detecting and reporting suspicious financial activity, playing a crucial role in Canada’s fight against financial crime.

Path to Confirmation

Before Ryan can take up the new post, she must be confirmed by a vote in both the House of Commons and the Senate. The PBO can serve a maximum of two seven-year terms in the role, but previous holders have not exceeded one term.

The last permanent PBO, Yves Giroux, ended his term in September 2022. On his last day in office, the Carney government announced that PBO official Jason Jacques would serve as the interim PBO for six months. Jacques, who has worked in the office since its inception in 2008, returned to his role as director general of economic and fiscal analysis on March 2, 2023.

Jacques’ tenure began with controversy when he appeared before a parliamentary committee in September 2022, describing the health of Canada’s federal finances as ‘stupefying,’ ‘shocking,’ and ‘unsustainable.’ This prompted criticism from Kevin Page, Canada’s first PBO and president of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Democracy at the University of Ottawa, who said Jacques was ‘just wrong’ and that his comments were ‘not consistent with the numbers.’

OECD Report Highlights Communication Concerns

Earlier this month, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released a report on the PBO, noting that Jacques’ controversial remarks were cited as evidence of the need for the office to improve its communication strategies. However, the OECD still ranked Canada’s PBO as the best among the 35 countries it examined.

Jacques later acknowledged that his language in the hearing may have distracted parliamentarians from the message he was trying to convey. He subsequently softened his language in his analysis of November’s federal budget.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who had been informed of Ryan’s nomination last week, expressed his disagreement with the decision to replace Jacques. He argued that Jacques should have been made permanent instead of being ‘thrown out’ after only months in the role.

‘Mark Carney is trying to muzzle the Parliamentary Budget Office,’ Poilievre said on Monday. ‘We have a highly qualified parliamentary budget officer who is calling out Mr. Carney. And then all of a sudden, after only months in the job, [Carney] is throwing him out.’

Kevin Page, who previously worked with Ryan at the Privy Council Office, disagreed with Poilievre’s assessment. He praised Ryan as ‘a well-known and highly regarded public servant’ and emphasized that she is ‘an independent thinker with backbone to support the values and analysis of the office.’

The role of the PBO is crucial in ensuring transparency in government finances and providing impartial analysis to Parliament. The office has been a key institution since its establishment in 2008, and its independence is considered vital to Canada’s democratic process.

With Ryan’s nomination, the focus now shifts to her confirmation by both the House of Commons and the Senate. If confirmed, she will take over from Jacques, whose interim role has been marked by both controversy and criticism.