National — Canada, domestic public goods
Archived snapshot · no update cycle
Reads the condition of Canada's shared systems by preventive posture rather than by headline spending.
That a department can increase spending every year while its preventive posture erodes, because the increases sit on the reactive side of the ledger.
Sectoral budget totals are a poor guide to whether a system is getting ahead of its risks. Sorting the same spending by position in the risk cycle — before the event or after it — shows something the departmental view cannot.
The direction of travel matters more than the level. A public good whose anticipatory share has fallen for five cycles is heading somewhere, whatever the headline figure says.
Expenditure data classified at a level of detail that permits an anticipatory-versus-reactive split — which most published budget documents do not currently supply.
Explore the indicators, barometer, source material and extended analysis.
View dashboardThematic — democratic institutions and public trust
Archive
Watches the administrative capacity democratic function depends on between elections, when nobody is looking at it.
Thematic — the information environment as a public good
Archive
Tracks how far public discourse depends on a small number of private systems, and whether any of their claims about it can be independently checked.