Public Accounts of Canada
Investigative journalism isn’t just brown envelops or shadowy whistleblowers whispering in underground garages. Paper that’s in full public view – so-called open source – often yields great, probing stories. In Canada, one of the most neglected such documents is the mammoth Public Accounts of Canada.
This 3-volume tome is tabled in the House of Commons each autumn. The digit-dense pages show government’s actual spending in the previous fiscal year, along with liabilities, assets and net debts. Years ago, I despaired when these paper bricks landed with a thud on my desk in Ottawa, usually late in the afternoon. I faced a near impossible task of finding stories in the ocean of numbers by rapidly flipping pages. Today, the documents are online, allowing quick electronic searches.
The Public Accounts must be tabled by Dec. 31 each year, unless the Commons is not sitting, in which case they can be pushed to 15 days after the start of the next sitting. They usually appear in October, though the most recent (for 2020-2021) arrived on Dec. 14, the latest tabling in at least a decade. Delayed tabling is typical for election years.
Diligent reporters can find gold in this wilderness of numbers. Volume 3 is the most readily mined. Section 2 totes up losses of money and property, including laptops, iPhones, cars; Section 8 chronicles payments of claims against the Crown, ex-gratia payments and court claims; and Section 10 exposes how much each minister has been spending to run their office and portfolio.
Too few journalists seize this annual opportunity, though I suspect more would do so if their bosses cleared time and space for them. The digging can be time-consuming, often best done by journalists working in pairs or teams. Alas, fewer newsrooms in this troubled business seem willing to make the investment.
In hopes of inspiring more newsrooms to take up the challenge, here are five examples of stories extracted from this year’s Public Accounts:
“Liberals spend billions more on outsourced contracts since taking power” - Bill Curry and Mahima Singh, The Globe and Mail
“Feds report $326.1-million in lost revenue, public money, property in 2020-21” - Laura Ryckewaert, The Hill Times
“PMO spent $10.05-million in 2020-21, cabinet offices’ expenditures rose 10 per cent …” - Neil Moss, The Hill Times
“Federal government deposited nearly $26 million in the wrong bank accounts last year” - Elizabeth Thompson, CBC Parliamentary bureau
“Ottawa spent $560-million on damages over the Phoenix pay system, records show” - Bill Curry and Kristy Kirkup, The Globe and Mail
Jan. 17, 2022
Update Nov. 2, 2022: The 2021-22 Public Accounts of Canada are here.
