My #ottawaspends project is up and running for the 41st Parliament. This is primarily a Twitter-based project which will include summary updates here from time to time and the odd story on Sun News Network and in our newspapers.
Do click through on the links for more information and examples and feel free to drop a query in the comments section.
So, with that, we are ready for the first summary after the first six weeks of the life of the — say it with me, folks — “strong, stable, Conservative majority government.”
So far: We've counted 39 separate funding announcements which commit the government to spending $437.3 million. This money was all approved and booked by the 40th Parliament and is being rolled out now.
By dollar value, most of the money so far announced — about $334 million – is going to be spent outside Canada, on foreign aid projects announced either by Prime Minister Stephen Harper or International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda. That money has been committed through 11 funding announcements.
Next, we examine each funding release to see if the money will be spent in one specific riding. This is the pork barrel test, if you will. So, for example, earlier this week, we noted that Health Canada announced funding of $2.6 million for the Hincks Dellcrest Centre in downtown Toronto. This mental health facility is in Liberal Bob Rae's riding so we chalks up $2.6 million worth of spending in the Liberal column. When the government allocated $2 million for the local economic development agency in Lac-Megantic, QC, we put that in the Conservative column because that town is in Christian Paradis' riding.
And when Health Canada announced $2.9 million for the B.C. division of the Canadian Mental Health Association we give it an 'M' rating for “Multiple Ridings” which means it will be spent in ridings held by more than one political party. So far, there have been six announcements committing the government to spending $26.5 million in projects that benefit “multiple ridings.”
When it comes to spending where one riding benefits, Conservatives are getting more but then again, that party holds more ridings so you'd expect that:
- Conservative ridings: 11 announcements with funding of a combined $52.3 million.
- NDP ridings: 7 announcements for a combined $18.6 million.
- Liberal ridings: 3 announcements for a combined $5.83 million
- BQ ridings: 1 announcement for $130,000.