Finance monitor wary of 'slippery slope' of unconventional budget rollout

The government passed one checkpoint in its budget process on Thursday by passing laws to allow for it to fulfil the promises included in its budget.

This step — passing Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy's budget measures bill — is just one of several in the full process, but isn't one that's ultimately key to ensuring the province's many ministries and agencies operate as meant to year after year. The next step in that cycle is for Treasury Board President Prabmeet Sarkaria to table the main estimates, which are each ministry's detailed spending plan. These will be tabled "sometime in September" — with Sept. 7 being one possible date that's been circled, a well-placed senior government source told QP Briefing.

After these estimates are tabled, they're divvied up among the appropriate parliamentary committees, where MPPs have a chance to debate the government's spending plan and ultimately approve it — one of their "fundamental roles," as Ontario's financial accountability officer (FAO) Peter Weltman put it in an interview this week.

The main estimates are usually tabled in May, putting the government about four months behind the usual timing of the cycle — meaning MPPs will be under more of a time crunch this year to review and approve the government's spending.

The timing of the election is partly to blame for this "procedural fluke," said Weltman. However, he warned of this year's process becoming normalized, saying it could be part of a "slippery slope."

"You start to normalize these things, and if it starts to become OK not to hold the government to account, you're going to lose the democracy," Weltman said. "History is replete with examples of that. That's really the bottom line."

"That's why I'm speaking out about it," the financial accountability officer added. "Not because I think anything nasty is going to happen tomorrow, but these are important principles that safeguard our democratic institutions that keep our governments accountable to us."

The government usually produces its budget around when its new fiscal year starts, which is April 1. The Progressive Conservative government passed laws in 2019 creating fines for the premier and finance minister if they don't introduce it before the end of March. A few months before that deadline this year, the PCs passed a bill allowing for a one-month extension till the end of April.

Read More: PCs quietly seek to delay budget until advantageous date

Bethlenfalvy ended up tabling the PC government's budget-measures bill — the one he re-tabled on Aug. 9 and passed on Thursday — just days before the election. When he did this, he introduced the usually accompanying budget motion, which seeks the house's approval for the government's budgetary policy. The main estimates have to be tabled 12 sitting days after this, according to the standing order — the rules of the legislature.

But the PCs adjourned Ontario's parliament after they tabled their budget, and it dissolved for the election a few days later, meaning the estimates weren't tabled.

When Bethlenfalvy re-tabled the PCs' budget-measures bill on Aug. 9, he didn't table the accompanying support-seeking motion — meaning the 12-sitting-day countdown for the estimates didn't begin. How the standing orders are interpreted in a year with an election-caused disruption like this one means the 12-day rule doesn't apply, Weltman explained.

The senior government source who shared when the estimates will be tabled also told QP Briefing that the government's legal experts told them they needn't table the support-seeking motion that usually accompanies the budget.

In an election year, the government is also able to avoid some otherwise-required financial disclosures, which the PCs established by passing their 2019 Fiscal Sustainability, Transparency and Accountability Act — the same bill setting an annual deadline for the budget to be tabled.

The 29 ministries receive the authority to spend a certain amount during the next fiscal year using an interim supply, which is typically introduced in December of each year. The interim supply motion that was passed ahead of this year afforded the ministries to spend tens-of-billions of dollars less than its budget planned for, meaning its 2022 Supply Act must account for that difference.