By Kevin Page

March 9, 2026

On March 9, the Honourable Wayne Long, Secretary of State for Financial Institutions, tabled the certificate of nomination in the House of Commons to ask members of Parliament to approve Annette Ryan as the next Parliamentary Budget Officer of Canada.

Ms. Ryan, who currently serves as a deputy director at the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, or Fintrac, is an excellent choice. As a former Parliamentary Budget Officer (the first one), I am grateful that a well-qualified and known public servant has stepped forward to take on the role of legislative budget officer at this critical moment in Canada’s history.

On January 20, 2026, Prime Minister Carney delivered an important speech in Davos. He talked about the rupture in the world order and the need for a fundamental shift in our strategic posture. Budget 2025 set out a new fiscal policy approach that focused on economic growth through capital investment, trade diversification, and a significant boosting of our national defence capability.

There’s a reason why the late U.K. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s description as to what can throw a government off course — “Events, dear boy, events” — has made such a comeback lately.

Like it or not, PBO will find itself in the middle of the Parliamentary debate over how best to respond to the rupture in the global order and a series of (known and unknown) events that will threaten to undermine the government’s fiscal trajectory to an operating budget balance (think 2008 financial crisis, 2020 pandemic, 2026 war in the Middle East…).

Parliament and Canadians need a Parliamentary Budget Officer who can navigate these uncertain times with timely, independent and authoritative analysis that will elevate transparency, debate and accountability. This is not business a usual (i.e., business-cycle stabilization policy).

First PBO Kevin Page and next PBO Annette Ryan/IFSD image

Annette Ryan has the smarts: Rhodes scholar, degrees in mathematics and economics. Annette Ryan has the experience. She has worked in all three central agencies with responsibilities for budgeting – Finance, Treasury and Privy Council. She led an analytical team at Industry Canada.

Understanding the connection between the public and private sectors at the historical juncture is critical for Canada’s efforts to boost capital investment and productivity.

Annette Ryan has the character to lead in difficult times. I worked with Annette at PCO in 2005-06. We provided economic and fiscal analysis to the Prime Minister, Cabinet and the Clerk of the Privy Council.

I saw firsthand her analytic and strategic-thinking skills, and her respect for public service values, including independent advice and loyal implementation. I saw an affable charm and grace that flows naturally from her family roots in Newfoundland and PEI.

I saw the maturity of a good person and loving mom.

The OECD recently gave Canada’s PBO a good report card. Annette Ryan will get the keys to an office that has a good domestic and international reputation and working relationships with parliamentarians and Canada’s media.

The challenges ahead are difficult. Institutional strength and trust will be tested. PBO will be pushed and pulled in in different ways — on the fiscal stance of the government in an uncertain economic outlook; on prospects for hitting fiscal targets in a period of unprecedented increases in defence spending; on due diligence for major capital projects; on promoting fiscal transparency on complex public-private projects.

I know that Annette Ryan will rise to these and any other challenges.

Kevin Page is the President of the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy (IFSD) at the University of Ottawa, former Parliamentary Budget Officer and a Contributing Writer for Policy Magazine.