Our approach was simple. Information contained within the various Proactive Disclosure websites was reviewed to identify “Aboriginal” expenditures. Once a grant or contribution had been determined to be “Aboriginal” – either because the recipient or the program was identifiable as Aboriginal – it was entered into a database that would allow for sorting by type of recipient, region, or department.
In order to categorize expenditures, each recipient was assigned an organizational “type” as it was entered. This was occasionally a difficult exercise, because information on the organization was not always available. Where possible, we accessed information from the Internet, often using the organization’s own information to identify its affiliation and purpose.
Our review identified 6,199 grants and contributions to 2,054 recipients from 30 federal government departments for a total value of $5,606,665,491. A listing of the identified recipients is attached to this report as Appendix D.
