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asset disclose by public officials

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Michael Lenczner-2
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asset disclose by public officials

Michael Lenczner-2

Public Registry under the Conflict of Interest Act 

Public Registry under the Members’ Code
http://ciec-ccie.gc.ca/PublicSearchMembers.aspx

I was wondering if anyone had experience using this data?

It's not very structured. I think NLP (natural language processing would be required) for effective use.

This is a link to a resource which describes Canadian laws and regulations on this topic.

Also - do any of you know if any other other provinces have these types of databases?
Ontario doesn't seem to have data online besides hospitality & travel.


Thanks,
Michael Lenczner

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David Akin
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Re: asset disclose by public officials

David Akin
A reminder that this database is not only a record of assets or income flowing to federal public officer holders (MPs pluse senior bureaucrats) but it also records liabilities. The threshold for declaration in either case is $10,000 a year in income or an asset or liability valued at $10,000. Moreover, in some cases, the assets and liabilities of spouses must be declared.

If anyone has a any strategies on how to provide some "structure" to these filings, I and, I'm sure, many members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, would be eternally grateful.

In the last 12 months this database has helped reporters confirm:
- Precisely 3 MPs have declared income of $10,000 a year or more from "speaking fees": Justin Trudeau, Marc Garneau, and Kirsty Duncan.
- Two MPs appear be in trouble with Canada's tax collector (declaring a liability of $10,000 or greater to Canada Revenue Revenue Agency or its Quebec counterpart): Hoang Mai and Tyrone Benskin
- One MP collects $10,000 or more a year in revenue from a Crown Corporation while voting on and participating in debates about that Crown Corporation's funding: Andrew Cash.

In each case, reporters have then had to ask the MPs for details and while each MP except for Kirsty Duncan has provided details of their income or liability, none are under obligation to do so.

There are likely many more such stories in this database if it was presented in any shape, way or form that allowed some kind of decent analysis or comparison.

So: If anyone has some thoughts/strategies for providing some structure to this database, I and, I suspect, most members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, would be most grateful.

Cheers!


On 2013-07-08, at 2:16 PM, Michael Lenczner <[hidden email]> wrote:


Public Registry under the Conflict of Interest Act 

Public Registry under the Members’ Code
http://ciec-ccie.gc.ca/PublicSearchMembers.aspx

I was wondering if anyone had experience using this data?

It's not very structured. I think NLP (natural language processing would be required) for effective use.

This is a link to a resource which describes Canadian laws and regulations on this topic.

Also - do any of you know if any other other provinces have these types of databases?
Ontario doesn't seem to have data online besides hospitality & travel.


Thanks,
Michael Lenczner
_______________________________________________
CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss

David Akin
Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA


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James McKinney-2
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Re: asset disclose by public officials

James McKinney-2
Suggest the dataset? http://data.gc.ca/eng/suggested-datasets

Just publishing the dataset in a relatively unstructured but machine-readable format would be a step forward.

I don't anticipate that the government will take the trouble to add structure to the text, but I don't think that's their responsibility.

Once we have access to the full database, we could then do entity extraction (e.g. identify crown corporations, monetary values, etc.) that would make the dataset easier to explore. You could go further and do full-on NLP, but I think just extracting some important entities and making it possible to perform keyword searches with a proper search engine (e.g. when searching for "speaking" the government website doesn't return results relating to "speaker fees") would make all of David Akin's use cases possible.

James

On 2013-07-08, at 2:28 PM, David Akin wrote:

A reminder that this database is not only a record of assets or income flowing to federal public officer holders (MPs pluse senior bureaucrats) but it also records liabilities. The threshold for declaration in either case is $10,000 a year in income or an asset or liability valued at $10,000. Moreover, in some cases, the assets and liabilities of spouses must be declared.

If anyone has a any strategies on how to provide some "structure" to these filings, I and, I'm sure, many members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, would be eternally grateful.

In the last 12 months this database has helped reporters confirm:
- Precisely 3 MPs have declared income of $10,000 a year or more from "speaking fees": Justin Trudeau, Marc Garneau, and Kirsty Duncan.
- Two MPs appear be in trouble with Canada's tax collector (declaring a liability of $10,000 or greater to Canada Revenue Revenue Agency or its Quebec counterpart): Hoang Mai and Tyrone Benskin
- One MP collects $10,000 or more a year in revenue from a Crown Corporation while voting on and participating in debates about that Crown Corporation's funding: Andrew Cash.

In each case, reporters have then had to ask the MPs for details and while each MP except for Kirsty Duncan has provided details of their income or liability, none are under obligation to do so.

There are likely many more such stories in this database if it was presented in any shape, way or form that allowed some kind of decent analysis or comparison.

So: If anyone has some thoughts/strategies for providing some structure to this database, I and, I suspect, most members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, would be most grateful.

Cheers!


On 2013-07-08, at 2:16 PM, Michael Lenczner <[hidden email]> wrote:


Public Registry under the Conflict of Interest Act 

Public Registry under the Members’ Code
http://ciec-ccie.gc.ca/PublicSearchMembers.aspx

I was wondering if anyone had experience using this data?

It's not very structured. I think NLP (natural language processing would be required) for effective use.

This is a link to a resource which describes Canadian laws and regulations on this topic.

Also - do any of you know if any other other provinces have these types of databases?
Ontario doesn't seem to have data online besides hospitality & travel.


Thanks,
Michael Lenczner
_______________________________________________
CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss

David Akin
Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA

_______________________________________________
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http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss


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Kent Mewhort-2
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Re: asset disclose by public officials

Kent Mewhort-2
I did a little bit of playing around with this data (wrt MPs).  Enjoy: http://www.openissues.ca/mp-connections.

Kent

On 13-07-08 08:37 PM, James McKinney wrote:
Suggest the dataset? http://data.gc.ca/eng/suggested-datasets

Just publishing the dataset in a relatively unstructured but machine-readable format would be a step forward.

I don't anticipate that the government will take the trouble to add structure to the text, but I don't think that's their responsibility.

Once we have access to the full database, we could then do entity extraction (e.g. identify crown corporations, monetary values, etc.) that would make the dataset easier to explore. You could go further and do full-on NLP, but I think just extracting some important entities and making it possible to perform keyword searches with a proper search engine (e.g. when searching for "speaking" the government website doesn't return results relating to "speaker fees") would make all of David Akin's use cases possible.

James

On 2013-07-08, at 2:28 PM, David Akin wrote:

A reminder that this database is not only a record of assets or income flowing to federal public officer holders (MPs pluse senior bureaucrats) but it also records liabilities. The threshold for declaration in either case is $10,000 a year in income or an asset or liability valued at $10,000. Moreover, in some cases, the assets and liabilities of spouses must be declared.

If anyone has a any strategies on how to provide some "structure" to these filings, I and, I'm sure, many members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, would be eternally grateful.

In the last 12 months this database has helped reporters confirm:
- Precisely 3 MPs have declared income of $10,000 a year or more from "speaking fees": Justin Trudeau, Marc Garneau, and Kirsty Duncan.
- Two MPs appear be in trouble with Canada's tax collector (declaring a liability of $10,000 or greater to Canada Revenue Revenue Agency or its Quebec counterpart): Hoang Mai and Tyrone Benskin
- One MP collects $10,000 or more a year in revenue from a Crown Corporation while voting on and participating in debates about that Crown Corporation's funding: Andrew Cash.

In each case, reporters have then had to ask the MPs for details and while each MP except for Kirsty Duncan has provided details of their income or liability, none are under obligation to do so.

There are likely many more such stories in this database if it was presented in any shape, way or form that allowed some kind of decent analysis or comparison.

So: If anyone has some thoughts/strategies for providing some structure to this database, I and, I suspect, most members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, would be most grateful.

Cheers!


On 2013-07-08, at 2:16 PM, Michael Lenczner <[hidden email]> wrote:


Public Registry under the Conflict of Interest Act 

Public Registry under the Members’ Code
http://ciec-ccie.gc.ca/PublicSearchMembers.aspx

I was wondering if anyone had experience using this data?

It's not very structured. I think NLP (natural language processing would be required) for effective use.

This is a link to a resource which describes Canadian laws and regulations on this topic.

Also - do any of you know if any other other provinces have these types of databases?
Ontario doesn't seem to have data online besides hospitality & travel.


Thanks,
Michael Lenczner
_______________________________________________
CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss

David Akin
Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA

_______________________________________________
CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss



_______________________________________________
CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss


_______________________________________________
CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
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