Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
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The PBO releases baseline for costing political parties’ election campaign proposals

Ottawa (Ontario), March 24, 2025

The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) today released an updated economic and fiscal baseline projection to be used by federal political parties as they build their platforms for the 2025 general election.

The 2025 Election Proposal Costing Baseline projection is a combination of the PBO’s fiscal outlook published in Economic and Fiscal Outlook - March 2025, and new measures announced since the Fall Economic Statement 2024 up until March 14, 2025.

The baseline projection and its underlying assumptions will be used by the PBO to prepare financial cost estimates for political parties during the 2025 election proposal costing (EPC) period. The 45th election will mark the third time the PBO has offered this service since the Parliament of Canada Act was amended in 2017 to introduce a role for the PBO during federal elections.

“Our role is to respond to requests from political parties seeking to assess the financial impact of the measures they are considering for their campaign,” explains PBO Yves Giroux. “Our independent, non-partisan cost estimates of election campaign commitments help Canadian voters make informed choices at the ballot box and help build trust in the political process.”

Through the PBO’s Election Proposal Costing (EPC) service, political parties can place requests for the costing of election campaign proposals. The PBO will estimate the financial cost of an election campaign proposal only when requested to do so by a political party, and only when a proposal is specific, sufficiently detailed and intended for a political party’s own platform.

“My office has produced a suite of products that in combination with our costing service will ensure that all aspects of political platforms can be costed in an integrated manner,” adds Mr. Giroux.

To support political parties in building fully-costed platforms, the PBO has published the Economic and Fiscal Baseline additional analysis, the Sensitivity of Fiscal Projections to Economic Shocks table as well as: • The updated Public Debt Charges Calculator • The updated Ready Reckoner

During the election period, the PBO will not publish any new reports. Only assessments of the financial cost of proposed campaign measures requested by political parties will be released. The PBO’s election cost estimates can be found on our website.

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