The Liberal administration has appointed Annette Ryan, a senior public servant, as the new parliamentary budget officer (PBO).
Currently, Ryan is a deputy director at Fintrac, which is Canada’s financial intelligence unit and anti-money-laundering agency, a position she has held since late 2019.
On Monday, Wayne Long, the secretary of state for financial institutions, informed the House of Commons that the government is putting forth Ryan’s nomination for a seven-year term.
Ryan has an extensive background in senior government roles, having served as associate assistant deputy minister at Finance Canada and as chief economist and director general of economic research and policy analysis at Industry Canada.
Her educational background includes a bachelor of arts in mathematics from Acadia University and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Oxford, as noted on her LinkedIn profile.
-
After a bumpy ride, federal budget watchdog steps down with some praise
-
Leading economists want less talk, more numbers from federal budget watchdog
-
Carney appoints interim budget watchdog as current officer’s term ends
Before Ryan can assume her new role, she needs to receive confirmation through a vote in both the House of Commons and the Senate.
PBOs can hold office for a maximum of two seven-year terms, though previous appointees have generally only completed a single term.
The last permanent budget officer, Yves Giroux, concluded his term in September of the previous year. On his final day in office, the Carney administration announced the appointment of Jason Jacques as the interim PBO for a six-month duration.
While a permanent PBO requires parliamentary approval, an interim PBO can be appointed directly by the cabinet through a governor-in-council appointment, allowing for multiple six-month terms without limit.
A sometimes bumpy ride
Jacques, who has been with the office since the first PBO was established in 2008, returned to his previous role as the director general of economic and fiscal analysis on March 2.
His term began on a rocky note when he faced backlash for a controversial statement made during a parliamentary committee meeting in September, where he characterized the state of Canada’s federal finances as “stupefying,” “shocking,” and “unsustainable.”
Kevin Page, the inaugural PBO and current president of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Democracy at the University of Ottawa, expressed strong disapproval of Jacques’s remarks, stating to CBC’s Power & Politics shortly after that Jacques was “just wrong” and his comments were “not consistent with the numbers.”
When the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released its report on the PBO last month, it highlighted this incident as indicative of a need for the PBO to enhance its communication strategies in the future.
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer Jason Jacques, speaking at a parliamentary committee on Sept. 25, 2025, says ‘it’s not a funny fiscal outlook. It’s a really serious fiscal outlook.’
Jacques mentioned to CBC News that his choice of words during that hearing diverted attention from the key points he intended to make. He later refined his language in his assessment of the federal budget presented in November.
The OECD also flagged a mistake made in 2024 under Giroux’s leadership, where a PBO report mistakenly included the industrial carbon price in its consumer price calculations, highlighting another communication issue. Although this error was rectified, the OECD report indicated that the correction process lacked transparency.
Earlier this year, Jacques began addressing these communication challenges by introducing the PBO’s inaugural communications and correction policies.
Despite the OECD’s critique of the PBO’s communication practices, it still ranked the office as the best among the 35 countries it evaluated.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who was informed of Ryan’s nomination last week, stated on Monday that Jacques should have been made the permanent PBO instead of being dismissed for speaking the truth.
-
Interim parliamentary budget officer takes aim at Liberal accounting, but says budget sustainable
-
Federal budget watchdog forecasts sharp rise in deficit to $68.5B this year
-
Budget watchdog sees ‘considerable concern’ over government’s lack of fiscal anchors
“Mark Carney is attempting to silence the Parliamentary Budget Office. We have a highly competent parliamentary budget officer who is holding Mr. Carney accountable,” Poilievre remarked on Monday. “And suddenly, after just months in his role, [Carney] is dismissing him.”
Page, who collaborated with Ryan at the Privy Council Office, disagreed with this viewpoint, stating to CBC News that “Ryan is an excellent choice.”
Describing Ryan as “a well-respected and recognized public servant,” Page emphasized that she is “an independent thinker with the strength to uphold the values and analysis of the office.”