By The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - Parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page says he will recommend his operation of monitoring the government's financial performance be shut down if he does not receive sufficient resources.

Page says he still has not been told whether his budget will increase to the recommended $2.8 million, which he says he needs to do his work. Page has been a thorn in the side of the government with his reports questioning Finance Department estimates of deficits and other issues.

He says several staffers are on loan from other departments and if he doesn't have a critical mass of qualified personnel to do the work, he will recommend the office be shut down.

In testimony to the House finance committee, Page says the government has also been slow in giving him needed information on how Ottawa's infrastructure stimulus is being implemented.

He says the information he does have suggests the government may not be able to spend all the money it has set aside to stimulate the economy and says Ottawa should extend the deadline so that stimulus does not lapse.

The NDP's Thomas Mulcair calls it "outrageous" that Page has not been given the resources he needs to carry on his work of providing independent analysis on government budgets.