Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux waits to appear before the Senate Committee on National Finance, Tuesday, October 17, 2023 in Ottawa. A Liberal member of Parliament is calling out the parliamentary budget officer for not issuing a more public correction to its carbon price analysis after finding an error in it. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
OTTAWA – The parliamentary assistant to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is criticizing the parliamentary budget officer for not issuing a more public correction to its carbon price analysis after finding an error in it.
The PBO published a note on its website on April 17 admitting its economic analyses of the consumer carbon price done in both 2022 and 2023 erroneously included the impact of the industrial carbon price too.
The PBO says it plans to publish an updated analysis in the fall.
Liberal MP and parliamentary secretary Ryan Turnbull says in a letter sent to the PBO today that the office should issue a more public correction that clarifies how the error may have skewed the results.
Turnbull says the PBO’s mistake raises “significant questions” about the analysis which he notes has been at the centre of political debates about the impact of carbon pricing.
The PBO’s original analyses claimed that while most families would receive more from rebates than they paid in carbon pricing those benefits would be erased once the impact on job growth and incomes is factored in.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 28, 2024.
