You belong to a team of senior bureaucrats in the Office of the Clerk of the Privy Council. As representatives of the most senior member of the public service, your team is charged with the responsibility of coordinating the actions of the various departments to ensure that government policy is streamlined, coherent, and consistent. The government of the day is a centrist political party, meaning that they rely upon votes from both the right and the left. It has been in office for three years, and is heading into an election year, meaning this budget is particularly important for its electoral prospects. At the same time, a significant recession, which began early last year, has created a number of problems. Not only must the government attempt to fulfill a number of its commitments, but it must now take into account the need to help stimulate the economy by spending money.

However, the government's most important promise in the last election was that it would balance the budget by the end of its term in office. Despite the fact that, as we have discussed in CPPA 101 and 102, the government would arguably be better served in a recession to invest money to stimulate the economy, the prime minister has been clear that they must uphold their campaign promise to balance the budgeteven against the advice of policy experts.

This being the case, your task is to develop a budget that advises the prime minister and cabinet on the best course of action for their budget. Given what you know about the various policy fields mentioned below, budgeting processes, and the circumstances related to this mock budget assignment below, you must design a budget that does as much as possible to help the government fulfill its objectives, and address the economic crisis, while remaining within a balanced budget. Since the prime minister has demanded a balanced budget, you, as representatives of the Privy Council Office must follow that advice whether it reflects your values or not. In the conclusion of your report, you may wish to explain to me what you would have done differently had in accordance with your values had these constraints not been placed upon you.

The economic crisis means that spending priorities, which were set earlier in the year, can no longer all be met while achieving a balanced budget. This means that you must find alternative methods for achieving a balanced budget, while at the same time delivering to the prime minister and cabinet, a budget that addresses the major policy concerns of the day, and attempts to address the economic crisis.

Beyond simply managing the economy, there are numerous political considerations that the government must take into account from its obligations to Indigenous peoples, to demands for military spending, to claims from Atlantic fishers that they need economic stimulus or risk the collapse of the entire industry. Use your own knowledge of Canada's political dynamics to better situate yourself with regards to some of the challenges confronted during the budgetary planning stages.

Here are some of the realities you must consider:

• A major recession has hit Canada, which has undermined the government's revenues, but also its expenses through increased costs for support programs.
• The government finds itself in the awkward position of having to keep its promise to balance the budget, keep other promises it has made, and take measures to address the economic crisis.
• Your responsibility as an advisor is to provide the best possible budget that takes into account these practical political, economic, and social variables, but that also reflects the ethical responsibilities of the government. In other words, the government arguably also has an ethical imperative to do certain things. It is up to you to decide how to balance these responsibilities in your recommendation to the prime minister and cabinet. You must explain the rationale for why you have chosen the course you have, taking these considerations into account.
• Because the government is very concerned with re-election and its promise to balance the budget before the end of its term, the prime minister has given very clear instructions that you must not run a deficit. In other words, your revenues must exceed your expenditures.
• Achieving a balanced budget will be difficult because you are already starting with a significant structural deficit. This means you must find ways to both cut some of the proposed new spending priorities in the new spending plan and/or come up with new ways to generate revenue. There is no way to achieve balance without cutting expenditures or adding new revenue sources. You must explain your choices, keeping in mind that neither approach is likely to be popular with the public.
• It is up to you to recommend the best policy course to the government. Remember, this assignment is not designed as a forum to enforce your own views about the government. Rather, it is an opportunity to work with a group of your colleagues to go through the exercise of creating a budget that reflects the policy advice of the prime minister. You must decide which issues deserve priority, and provide an explanation for your rationale. Your objective is to design a budget and to provide a rationale for why you organized things as you have.

The Assignment:

Your assignment should provide a budget balance sheet as well as a Report to the Prime Minister that should provide a rationale to the prime minister and cabinet for your policy choices on behalf of the group. It is okay to use bullet points for certain central ideas, but the majority of the report should be written in a sentence/paragraph format. Remember that you will have to write this report as a group, so I encourage everyone to make use of Google Docs, so that you can work on it collectively.

Your group's report should include a justification for spending and revenue choices in each department and the government's broader objectives. The best assignments will critically engage this issue using examples from course readings, modules, and discussions.

Your report should be divided into the following four sections and should be addressed to the current prime minister of the day (e.g. 2018, Justin Trudeau):

Introduction:

• What are the various themes being presented in your budget?
• Does your budget have a central theme? What is it?
• What are the overall policy objectives?
• What is the "headline" that the media will likely take away from this budget?
• What are the general implications for this budget for the public and for economic well-being?
• What are the major departments/who are the major stakeholders who will be involved?

Summary:

• In detail, explain why you've made the various choices you've made. The best answers will engage this issue critically, providing a clear analysis and explanation for their actions.
• Provide an explanation for your decisions regarding each of the various departments listed below as well as a summary of the budget as a whole. Much of this section will involve explaining your spending choices, and providing explanations for them, while taking into account the various political and policy considerations the government must account for.
• Remember, there are not necessarily right or wrong answers. The best assignments will, drawing upon themes from the course modules and your textbook, attempt provide a coherent and critical rationale for each of their budgetary decision.

For example, you might ask:

• What is the policy rationale for the decisions you've made?
• What is the political rationale?
• Who are the major stakeholders that will be impacted both positively and negatively?
• How should the government respond to some of the political problems that this budget will create (there will be some no matter which course of action you take)?
• What are the central values involved and how have you applied them in this budget?

Conclusion/Reflection:

• You can use this section of the report to both provide a summary of the central takeaways from your budget proposal. Where will this lead the government in the future?
• How does it lay the foundation for a brighter future (if it all)?
• How does your budget reflect the values of your government and of the country?
• How will your budget overcome the political problems identified in the explanation below?
• You can also use this section to tell me what you might have done differently had you not been constrained by some of the terms of the assignment.
• In this final section, the best reports will reflect upon the broader themes, clearly state them, and explain to the prime minister why this budget is the one they should take the people and run an election on.