OTTAWA — Canada’s fiscal watchdog suggested to a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that Ottawa should need House of Commons approval to change or eliminate long-held fiscal targets, as the Carney government did just weeks ago.

Jason Jacques, the interim Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO), told the Senate finance committee that Ottawa had used its debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio as one of its key “fiscal anchors” for the last three decades and that this government had described it as a key gauge for fiscal sustainability as recently as this fall.

But in early November, the debt-to-GDP anchor was thrown overboard.

In responding to a question from New Brunswick Senator Krista Ross, Jacques suggested that the federal government should need parliamentary approval for such a move,

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