Since they were re-elected in October, 2008, the federal Conservatives have rolled out 3,229 press releases from government departments, agencies, and Crown corporations which announce funding commitments of various sizes for various regions. We maintain a database of information contained in those releases and here's the latest tallies from that database. A chart summarizing the number of releases by the province in which the spending was announced and the total dollars committed in those releases is at the left. Here's some of the trends:
- Nearly one in three of those spending announcements is made by ministers who were in the province of Quebec when they made the announcement. A total of 966 press releases carry a placeline in that province. The funding commitments outlined in those releases total $13.3 billion, most of which, but not all, will be spent in the province.
- Just 11 of those releases carry a placeline in Nunavut where spending commitments worth a total of $108 million have been rolled out. That's the fewest number of releases by province or territory.
- Combined, the 3,229 releases tout spending commitments of $75 billion. Some of that is new money, some is old money, some is re-announced money. But in every case, the government is issuing a a release to call attention to and, one assumes, win political credit for spending money.
- Denis Lebel, the Minister of State for the regional economic development agency of Quebec has signed off on more releases than any other minister. His department has issued 648 releases. Diane Finley, the human resources minister is second, signing off on 604 spending announcements, followed by Lynn Yelich, the minister in charge of regional economic development for the West (414), Keith Ashfield, minister in charge of Atlantic Canada's economic development agency (344) and James Moore, the Heritage Minister (340)
- If add up the amounts of money committed in each release, Finley comes out on top at $22 billion. Infrastructure Minister John Baird is next at $15.4 billion, followed by Industry Minister Tony Clement at $10.6 billion, Defence Minister Peter MacKay at $8.3 billion and Christian Paradis who was, until the last cabinet shuffle, public works minister, at $3.1 billion
Informative post.
A few questions:
• Did you have to make ATI requests to get the info?
• What is the reason for placing Quebec at the top of the list?
It's not in alphabetical order, nor in numerical ($ amounts) order.
• When you say “we maintain” who's the “we”?
Sorry, not only am I gabby, I'm also nosy.
1. You could make an ATI request for this information — though you'd have to file one, at $5 a pop, to every single government department and agency that puts out spending releases. There is not, so far as I know, any one-stop shop to collect or monitor this information. I subscribe or dig up press releases from multiples sources, multiple wire distribution agencies, and the departments themselves.
2. Quebec is at the top because more releases have originated from that province than any other. This chart is sorted on the third colum “Releases”
3. We is Canwest News Service.
Thanks for the info.
Are these unique or do they include releases that encapsulate previous amounts and other re-releases. (when you say old money do you mean solely pre 2008…). If as I read it, not unique, do you have any idea what the dollar factor of repeat announcement was by province (a sample of 30 per might address the question statistically).
One question the Government has no answer for, I guess, about the “plan' is whether the 5.3% of Canadians working in Ontario Manufacturing who account for about 36% of the losses, how well did the stimulus work for them.