Ontario's New Financial Accountability Officer: An Evaluation

Abstract

In September 2013, Ontario became Canada’s first province and one of the world’s few subnational jurisdictions to create an independent budget office. The Financial Accountability Officer’s (FAO) mandate will be to assist Ontario’s parliamentarians in holding the government to account by providing them with independent forecasting and fiscal analysis. While this development is to be welcomed, the structure adopted for the FAO suffers from some serious shortcomings, touching on access to and disclosure of information, terms of office, and budgeting and management. Accordingly, there are a number of reforms that would overcome, to some extent, these problems and support fulfillment of the FAO’s mandate.

Keywords: Independent fiscal institution, parliamentary budget officer, financial accountability officer, administrative law, government accountability, parliamentary officers, officers of parliament, legislative officers

JEL Classification: H11, H50, H60, K23