Putting political donations in context:

cross-referencing them with the Public Accounts

 After a long tug-of-war with the Ministry of Finance over an FOI request I filed with them in the summer of 1999, I am now the proud owner of copies of Volume 3 of the Public Accounts of Ontario on disk, as distinct from the paper book form they more usually sell it in. For the uninitiated: Volume 3 is the part of the Public Accounts in which ministries get down to the gritty details of exactly how government spends our money: cheques written to hospitals, asphalt companies and stationery suppliers, on and on for about 13,000 line items every fiscal year.

I have now succeeded in putting the Volume 3 information for fiscals 1996-7, 1997-8 and 1998-9 into a single spreadsheet file, in a format that's compatible with the way I organized the political contribution data.

When I started this project in 1998, my ambition was to have political contribution data and information about the award of government contracts in a single database. I now have all the necessary data to complete this.

However, I've also reached the limits of modern spreadsheet programs; I'll have to use databases from here on in.

So when are you putting this new information up on your site?

I'm not; I have to make a living somehow. I think 100,000 documented political donations are enough of a freebie - I don't have to throw in 45,000 items of goverment spending as well.

However, I'd be delighted to run searches of the material I've accumulated as a freelance research project. The information in the Public Accounts and the election contribution data can both be cross-checked against paper records, and I could arrange to fax the results of searches to clients as copies of the original paper documents.

My hourly rate for non-profits is $25/hr, and my revised rate for commercial clients (including media organizations) is $45/hr. With the higher rate you get documentary proof of all successful searches. Contact me for details.

Here's an example of how this cross-referenced data can help us understand how governments spend money on companies, how companies spend money on political parties, and what the relationships between what those two kinds of spending might be.

First, we'll look at how a random paving company (I ran a search on 'paving' in the Public Accounts, and this company was the first hit) spent money on the party in power:

Donations shown in red are of the maximum amount allowed by law at the time of the donation.
4 PC-96-ridings BRENNAN PAVING & CONSTRUCTION LTD $750.00
25 PC-96-ridings BRENNAN PAVING & CONSTRUCTION LTD $750.00
31 PC-95-riding-campaign BRENNAN ROBERT $750.00
31 PC-95-riding-campaign BRENNAN ROBERT $750.00
53 PC-95-riding-campaign BRENNAN JOYCE $500.00
53 PC-96-ridings BRENNAN JOYCE $160.77
56 PC-95-riding-campaign BRENNAN CAROL H $200.00
65 PC-96-ridings BRENNAN PAVING & CONSTRUCTION LTD $750.00
125 PC-96-ridings BRENNAN PAVING & CONSTRUCTION LTD $750.00
Central PC-96-central BRENNAN PAVING & CONSTRUCTION LTD $4,000.00
Central PC-96-central BRENNAN, JANET $135.86
Central PC-96-central BRENNAN, JOYCE $259.00
Central PC-97-central-byelection BRENNAN, JOYCE $175.00
Central PC-98-central BRENNAN PAVING & CONSTRUCTION LTD $2,000.00

As we can see, this company has been both generous and careful in its political giving: generous, in that they have given every cent the law allowed at the time; careful, in that they have selected the targets of their giving with some care. Let's see what riding numbers correspond to living, breathing politicians to take a closer look at this:

4 Brampton North Spina, Joe (PC) PA to various ministers: Economic Development, Trade and Tourism (1995-7), Northern Development and Mines (1997-9), Tourism (1999-).
25 Eglinton Saunderson, William (PC) Was minister of Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism (1995-9). Did not run in 1999.
31 Etobicoke-Lakeshore Kells, Morley (PC) Briefly environment minister under Miller. Ties to development industry.
53 Lanark-Renfrew Jordan, Leo (PC)  
56 Lincoln Sheehan, Frank (PC)  
65 Mississauga West Sampson, Hon. Rob (PC) Privatization minister. Involved with reviewing the Hwy. 407 deal.
125 York Centre Palladini, Hon. Al (PC) Minister of: Transportation (1995-7), Economic Development and Trade (1997-)

Why would this company be so careful to give money to these particular Tories? We can't know for sure: all we know is that they targeted the transportation and economic development portfolios, giving both to ministers and to their parliamentary assistants.

However, we can guess intelligently. Here are the public contracts they received, one for each fiscal year between 1996 and 1999:

1996-97 MINISTRY OF TRANSPORTATION Brennan Paving and Construction Ltd., $ 5,316,479.00
1997-98 MINISTRY OF TRANSPORTATION Brennan Paving and Construction Ltd., $ 890,437.00
1998-99 MINISTRY OF TRANSPORTATION Brennan Paving and Construction Ltd., $ 4,773,175.00

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