"PEI Liquor Control Commission: Box of wine"

Back in December, the Green Party released its Office of the Third Party expenses for the first two quarters, and asked for feedback about the format and presentation, which I was happy to provide.

The expenses for the third quarter have now been released by the office, and I’m happy to report that they have incorporated all of my feedback into this release:

1. The format of the CSV version of the expenses data is much more amenable to data analysis as it’s been structured to be machine-readable spreadsheet, not human-readable.
2. Abbreviations and short forms have largely been eliminated from the descriptions of expenses: there are now descriptions like “Visual Studios Creative Digital Media: Video production for Well-Being Measurement Act = invoice #1493” which are descriptive and helpful, not cryptic and inside-baseball.
3. The expense reports are now hosted on the Legislative Assembly website where they stand a much better chance of being permanently archived.

The party deserves recognition not only for continuing to release its expenses regularly and openly, but also for both asking for feedback and acting on it.

After all, when’s the last time you saw a political party include an honest “PEI Liquor Control Commission: Box of wine” on its expense reports!