Canada's former parliamentary budget officer had a full house of Yukoners in stitches Tuesday evening, even as he spoke with solemnity about the state of Canada's democracy.

Kevin Page joined federal NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and his territorial counterparts at the Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre to talk public finances and democratic institutions.

Public finance "really matters,” Page told the crowd before launching into a half-hour lecture that would prove it's intricately tied to the nation's democratic functioning.

Page explained that a key underpinning of Canada's Westminster system of governance has been weakened.

In theory, the "power of the purse” should lie completely with Parliament, but that principle has been "skewered,” he said.

Instead it now lies with the prime minister.

Many of Page's concerns stem from his experience as Canada's first parliamentary budget officer from 2008 to 2013 and the battle his team fought to counter opaque government operations by providing sound financial information to MPs.

"We definitely clashed with the government and the public service,” Page said.

"Fiscal transparency is good when you believe in the facts, but it's not necessarily good if you want to make decisions based on ideology.”

Page spoke specifically to the government's tough-on-crime agenda which was touted as a no-cost strategy.

But the Parliamentary Budget Office team saw through the rhetoric. It sought to provide the true cost estimates to parliamentarians, allowing them to elevate the debate by questioning whether it was the best use of Canadian tax dollars.

The question arises whether it's not the job of the public service to provide this information to MPs and by proxy Canadians.

Page said the public service has become pretty comfortable with this government's lack of transparency, that they've lost their way, and

in many cases are scared of their own shadow.

"Social trust with respect to Ottawa and respect to the institutions is hitting new lows,” he said.

"On public finance, I think what we found after five years was that from the top down, when you look at it, our numbers don't look so bad ... we'll probably we be back at zero in a few years if we get growth,” he noted.

"But once you lift the lid, you saw stuff that didn't work, you saw broken procurement policies, you saw people that were not doing their work.”

The problems with Canada's government institutions have become so pervasive that Page said it will take a Royal Commission to fix it.

Before the 2015 federal election, Page wants to see a far-reaching policy debate and a citizenry that's shed its cobwebs of complacency.

The second to speak, Mulcair levelled criticisms at the Harper government for "sucking the lifeblood out of the democratic institutions in our country.”

Harper, he said, would have Canadians believe the country can't afford the institutions it's built on, like universal health care or old age security.

The leader of the official Opposition went on to outline a number of the party's key policy items, including a healthy investment in early childhood education, sustainable development and First Nations social issues.

"It's going to cost money to fix it, but long-term we're doing what we have to to not leave that social debt on the backs of future generations; and we will atone for centuries of mistreatment of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people of Canada,” he said.

As for those broken democratic institutions – Mulcair said the NDP will stand up for them.

"There's a common sense role for government in protecting people,” he said.

The Quebec MP, who succeeded the late Jack Layton as leader in March 2012, addressed a local business luncheon early this afternoon.

See coverage in Thursday's edition.