Behind the Numbers: Trying to make sense of MPs' expenses

All the fuss about MPs and the House of Commons closing their books left journalists attempting to analyze what little information is actually public.

Each year, the Speaker publishes MP's expenses, which are broken up into 10 categories. While the document is searchable, it doesn't allow for any sort of analysis. For instance, while you can look up an individual member's expenses, it's difficult to compare that number with the expenses of several other MPs. And you can't add up numbers and sort them in ascending or descending order to determine the highest and lowest spenders.

But, having the information in a program such as Excel would allow for those kinds of comparisons. So, I requested the data in the online document in Excel, but was refused. It would seem that the powers that be are concerned with journalists "manipulating" the information in the manner I've just described.

Undeterred, and using a variety of techniques, I was able to get the information into Excel, which allowed me to create some lists that, while far from exhaustive, provide interesting ways to look at the expenses.

For instance, in order to determine the biggest spenders, I added the 10 individual categories (office, advertising, travel, etc), and then sorted the new "Totals" column in descending order. In short, I "manipulated" the data.

So what you'll see here is four sets of charts containing Top 20 and Bottom 20 lists in the following categories: Total Expenses; Staff and Other Expenses; Travel; and Advertising. After each category is an explanation culled from the parliamentary website that provides some context. Please be sure to read the explanations before reading the numbers.

It's also important to reiterate that these expenses are from April 2008 to March 2009, which is why you'll notice the inclusion of names of former MPs such as Rahim Jaffer and Belinda Stronach. The Speaker refuses to release the most recent expenses until next November, even though some MPs have begun publishing their expenses for the most recent fiscal year.  All that being said, the lists that appear in the charts below provide an interesting snapshot of expenditures on either end of the spectrum.

Expenses: Top 20 and Bottom 20

Total Expenses: The total is comprised of 10 categories including staff, travel and advertising.  Because these expenses are from the fiscal year April 2008 - March 2009, the data includes MPs such as Stronach, who are no longer MPs, either because they chose not to run (as was the case with Stronach) or were defeated. If they were not MPs for the full year, that might explain their lower expenses. It also includes MPs who were elected for the first time, which is also why some, such as Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq appear in the Bottom 20. And there are other factors that influence the numbers. For instance, Stephen Fletcher is at the top because of the special accommodations he requires to deal with his disability.

Staff and other expenses includes employee salaries, service contracts and constituency office operating expenses such as utilities, telephone service for secondary constituency offices, additional cellular and personal digital assistant (i.e. BlackBerry) services in excess of goods and services provided by the House (as well as airtime and data plans), furniture and computer equipment. This item also includes a miscellaneous expenditures account of up to three per cent of the Member's Office Budget for certain hospitality expenses and gifts given for reasons of official protocol.

You'll notice the Top 3 spenders are from relatively big and/or remote ridings, although many following the Top 3 are from urban ridings as well. If you dig deeper you also might find that some of the top spenders sit on more committees than some of the smaller spenders.

Total travel  includes travel, accommodation, meal and incidental expenses incurred by the member and the member's employees, designated traveller and/or dependant(s) within the constituency or the province or territory in which the constituency is located. It also includes certain transportation expenses incurred by the member within the National Capital Region, as well as accommodation, meal and incidental expenses incurred by employees on parliamentary business trips within Canada specifically authorized by the Board of Internal Economy. Seats identified as "vacant" are the taken care of by the former MP's Party Whip or, in the case of an Independent MP, the Speaker.

Again, most of the top spenders are those from large ridings, from ridings that are far from Ottawa (i.e. B.C., N.L. and the Far North). Although Jack Layton is from an urban Toronto riding, he is the leader of the NDP, so that may explain his high travel expenses. But not everyone falls within those explanations. Again, judging value for money is not a straightforward task.

Advertising allows members to communicate with their constituents about their office location and contact information, assistance and services they provide and meeting announcements related to the discharge of their constituency functions, and to issue congratulatory messages or greetings to constituents and opinions or statements in support of their parliamentary functions. The advertising expenses account is limited to 10 per cent of the member's office budget.

You'll likely notice that the Top 4 spenders are Bloc Quebecois MPs and that Industry Minister Tony Clement is listed as having spend $0 in this area. We're not sure why this is, so if you have any ideas or clues, feel free to post them in the comments section!