Monday was the first day of Christmas break for members of Parliament. Most were back in their ridings and, as usual when they're on a break week, it's tie for the federal government to start rolling out funding announcements so that local MPs can take credit for the spending. (The local MPs are always government MPs, no matter who is in power).
Here's the scorecard so far this week:
- On Monday, Dec. 14, I found 22 announcements in which one government department or another committed to spending $18.8 million. Of those, 18 announcements involves spending that will occur almost exclusively in a Conservative MP's riding. Those 18 announcements totalled $12.9 million.
- On Tuesday, Dec. 15, I found 6 announcements worth a total of $2.82 million. Of those, 5 are to be spent in Conservative ridings for a total of $$2.7 million.
Here's the announcements from Dec 14 (See note on table layout at the bottom) :
Lebel | CEDQR | Lebel | New hotel construction | Havre-Saint-Pierre | QC | $1,100,000 | QC | BQ | Asselin |
Lebel | CEDQR | Bernier | Grant to Mecanium Inc. for guidance services to business | Saint-Georges | QC | $97,200 | QC | CPC | Bernier |
Lebel | CEDQR | Bernier | New wastewater treatment | Beauceville | QC | $623,420 | QC | CPC | Bernier |
Lebel | CEDQR | Bernier | Wastewater treatment system | Saint-Jules | QC | $931,500 | QC | CPC | Bernier |
Lebel | CEDQR | Bernier | RINC: Arena upgrade | Beauceville | QC | $468,667 | QC | CPC | Bernier |
Lebel | CEDQR | Bernier | RINC: Water play area | Vallee Jonction | QC | $43,823 | QC | CPC | Bernier |
Lebel | CEDQR | Cannon | Loan to Auberge du Draveur to modernize | Maniwaki | QC | $212,500 | QC | CPC | Cannon |
Yelich | WD | Day | Okanagan School of the Arts training program | Oliver | BC | $400,000 | BC | CPC | Day |
Moore | PCH | Devolin | Lindsey Concert Foundation to fund concert series | Lindsay | ON | $22,000 | ON | CPC | Devolin |
Lebel | CEDQR | Gourde | Loan to Fromagerie Bergeron to buy new equipment | Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly | QC | $500,000 | QC | CPC | Gourde |
Lebel | CEDQR | Gourde | RINC: Improvements to municipal park and rec centre | Saint-Gilles | QC | $184,808 | QC | CPC | Gourde |
Lebel | CEDQR | Gourde | New multifunctional centre | Saint-Sylvestre | QC | $706,306 | QC | CPC | Gourde |
Aglukkaq | HC | Kerr | Training/recruiting francophone health care students | Ottawa | ON | $1,965,566 | NS | CPC | Kerr |
Finley | HRSDC | Shory | Homelessness Partnering Strategy | Calgary | AB | $240,000 | AB | CPC | Shory |
Finley | HRSDC | Warkentin | For 2010 NW Alberta Regional Skills Canada Competition | Peace River | AB | $25,370 | AB | CPC | Warkentin |
Yelich | WD | Warkentin | Replacing public works facility | High Level | AB | $2,543,040 | AB | CPC | Warkentin |
Yelich | WD | Jean | Dwarf Mistletoe Remediation Project | Boyle | AB | $3,500,000 | AB | CPC | Jean |
Yelich | WD | Jean | RINC: Renovations to local arean | Boyle | AB | $347,000 | AB | CPC | Jean |
Moore | PCH | Kent | Captus Press grant | Concord | ON | $96,949 | ON | CPC | Kent |
Ashfield | ACOA | MacKay | RINC: upgrades to sport courts, Wanderers Grounds Field House | Halifax | NS | $710,000 | NS | M | M |
Ritz | AAFC | Shipley | Pulse Canada to develop herbicide | Centralia | ON | $772,000 | NATIONAL | M | M |
Yelich | WD | Day | Osoyoos Indian Band & CSQ Environmental Tecnologies | Oliver | BC | $3,285,750 | BC | NDP | Atamanenko |
And here's the set from Dec. 15:
Lebel | CEDQR | Paradis | Pomerleau Park multifunction centre | Ascot Corner | QC | $112,894 | QC | BQ | Bonsant |
Moore | PCH | Allen_Mi | Carleton-Victoria Arts Council | Perth-Andover | NB | $8,000 | NB | CPC | Allen_Mi |
Clement | FEDNOR | Clement | Community economic development | Huntsville | ON | $152,000 | ON | CPC | Clement |
Lebel | CEDQR | Genereux | Grelots, Bâtons et Cie du Fou du cochon to buy equipment | La Pocatiere | QC | $94,000 | QC | CPC | Genereux |
Lebel | CEDQR | Gourde | Upgrading water supply | Lotbiniere | QC | $1,645,572 | QC | CPC | Gourde |
Prentice | EC | Oda | Leaskdale Manse National Historic Site | Uxbridge | ON | $803,332 | ON | CPC | Oda |
I'd be most pleased to be advised of any funding announcements that I missed.
Table Layout:Column 1: The name of the minister that is signing off on the funding.Column 2: The departmental code responsible for the funding.Column 3: The name of the MP making the announcement. Sometimes the minister responsible is also the announcing MP.4: A brief description of the funding initiative5: The municipal “placeline” on the funding press release.6: The provincial “placeline” on the funding press release.7: The total amount of federal funds committed.8. The region or province of the country that will benefit from the funding. NATIONAL means the funding will benefit Canadians in more than three provinces.9. If the funding is going to spent almost entirely in one riding, then this code identifies the party that holds the riding. BQ, NDP, LPC, or CPC. An M denotes that the funding will benefit Multiple ridings.10. The name of the MP whose riding is benefitting from the funding. M here means that multiple MPs are benefitting.
The okanagan schol of the arts funding annoucnement will benefit multiple ridings in the okanagan. of the 4 ridings in the Okanagan, 3 are CPC and 1 is NDP
Good work! Is this your own compilation or is there a source?
I can be convinced of that but you'll need to provide more details. Here's the description I'm working from off of the WD press release:
“Okanagan School of the Arts: The Okanagan School of the Arts is receiving $400,000 to create a training and entrepreneurial employment centre to foster employability and skills development through the arts. The project will employ skilled instructors, construction workers, administrators and youth in the short term. The new centre will offer programming, training for residents in the entire South Okanagan Region. This project will build on existing business and entrepreneurial training initiatives offered through the Okanagan School of the Arts”
I'm assuming that when WD talks about creating a new employment centre, they are talking about constructing a physical building. The stimulus, then, is in the construction jobs and wages paid on site in that riding; the employees needed to staff that centre will also earn their wages and likely spend their wages mostly in that riding. I have no doubt that artists and administrators who attend the school and benefit from the training will come from all over but, for the purposes of this examination, I'm looking at what sort of stimulus/job creation the government creates directly by its investment and where that stimulus is geographically located.
The database is mine. The sources are government press releases issued by the departments cited above. My database, incidentally, has, of 1830 this evening, 2,275 press releases announcing funding commitments issued by a federal government department since the last general election.
Are you sure this isn't a matter of national security? The Cons have to take this down right away otherwise the terrorist opposition may get their hands on it.