Feds Ask Budget Officer Not to Release Internal Data on Public Dental Care

Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux waits to appear before the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance in Ottawa on Oct. 25, 2022. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

The federal government is asking Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) Yves Giroux not to publicly release internal data given him by the Department of Finance for his analysis of the New Canadian Dental Care Plan outlined in Budget 2023.

Giroux wrote a letter to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on May 2 asking for a number of internal documents and figures to inform his analysis of the government’s public dental care plan allocation in the most recent budget, which said the plan will probably cost $7 billion more than the original estimate.