OTTAWA — The Conservative government spent $4.9 million on public opinion polls last year, an increase over the $4.3 million it spent a year earlier.

According to an annual report posted quietly last week by Public Works and Government Services Canada, federal departments commissioned a total of 81 public opinion research projects worth $4.9 million in 2013-2014.

That’s up from $4.3 million spent on 72 projects the year before, but still less than the $6.5 million spent in 2011-12 when voters elected a Conservative majority government, and less than the $8.3 million spent in 2009-2010, the year after Stephen Harper’s government barely survived a prorogation crisis.

It’s also a lot less than the historic high of $29 million in 2004-05 when the Liberals were in power and annually spending tens of millions of public dollars to plumb public opinion.

What’s clear is that this kind of public opinion research is valuable.

It determines what Canadians’ priorities are and what they think of controversial and very political topics like prostitution, pipelines, the Senate, the oilsands, abortion, taxes, you name it.

It signals governments when to pivot on a policy, how to tailor advertising messages, and when they needn’t worry about an issue no matter how much the Opposition goes on about it.

Ever wonder why Prime Minister Stephen Harper constantly says the number one priority of Canadians is the economy? Polls with big sample sizes that probe the views of thousands of Canadians tell him so.

Guess where “helping the middle class” — which Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau mostly focuses on — falls? In two recent polls conducted in January it was named as a priority by only 0.2 or 0.4 per cent of Canadians. Abolishing the Senate — the subject of NDP Leader Tom Mulcair’s Roll Up the Red Carpet campaign? Just 1.3 or 1.4 per cent of Canadians thought it a priority.

Outside of government, the Conservative party reported to Elections Canada that it spent no money on polling last year. However, that’s not the whole picture.

The party did conduct public opinion surveys according to a party source, but it was reported under the heading “research,” a catch-all category on which the Conservatives spent nearly $290,000.

The party denies it takes advantage of being in power to probe public opinion using public dollars so it doesn’t need to spend on surveys itself.

Federal guidelines prohibit departments from asking questions related to electoral voting intentions, or political party preferences or party standings with the electorate.

“The government does not do polling for the party,” said Conservative party spokesman Cory Hann.

But that doesn’t mean departmental research isn’t eye-opening if you’re a political party looking to boost your fortunes in the eyes of voters. You can see how issues play by region, by age group, by education or income level, or by urban/rural split.

The Star looked at three recent national public opinion surveys commissioned separately by three different federal departments: Finance, Natural Resources, and Justice.

Only two — for Finance and Natural Resources — have officially been released, and only in the past week. The third, a Justice survey on prostitution and marijuana, was obtained by the Star and reported last week after it was withheld from a committee studying a new bill. It appeared to contradict the government’s current claims of broad support for its approach on both issues.

Together, the three polls cost nearly $500,000. They’re whoppers. Identically big sample sizes: 3,000 Canadians surveyed by phone.

Each survey — though commissioned by separate departments — begins with the exact same questions: “Thinking of the issues facing Canada today, which one would you say the Government of Canada should focus on most?” and “Are there any others?”

The polls then go on to ask questions of specific interest to the respective department.

The Justice survey probed views on prostitution and marijuana. The Finance Department explored Canadians’ confidence or anxiety about the economy, trade with the U.S., oil exports and whether Ottawa should lower personal or business taxes. The Natural Resources Department explored whether Canadians believe the federal government can respond to oil spills on land or on water. And so on.

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Done by two different firms (Ipsos Reid, and NRG Research Group.), they were conducted at almost the same time — during a week in mid-January, and a week at the end of January.

The results of the government’s “priorities” question were all different — which the federal government shrugged off as “normal,” to be expected with different surveys — but still meaningful.

Overall, Jack Aubry, a Finance Department spokesman who replied on behalf of all three departments, defended the polls as “extremely valuable,” and the insertion of the same “priorities” question in all three as simply customary.

“It is a standard practice to also include one tracking question on the Government of Canada’s top priorities,” he said.

Polls help the government to identify the needs and expectations of Canadians, he said, and help it to design policies, programs, services and initiatives “to measure progress in improving service quality.”

Ipsos-Reid declined a request for comment.

Aubry said the different results were really “quite similar.”

Aubry said the three top issues cited by Canadians “still fell in the same order with Economy/Jobs/Unemployment ranking first by a significant margin, while health care and the environment ranked second or third, with virtually the same proportion.”

Aubry disputed any suggestion the government had double- or triple-paid for the same information, given the question was asked in the same time frame, as did Privy Council spokesman Raymond Rivet. Both emailed identical statements: “The main objectives of the three research projects were distinct with unique questions relating to separate departmental issues.”

Since 2008, there’s been a freeze on federal departments’ ability to subscribe to other syndicated private polling services to track important trends. A decade ago, that added about $3 million annually to the tally.

The data it does collect may nevertheless flag some worrying signs for Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The Finance study said that 6 per cent of Canadians told the pollster the Conservative government should focus on “poor government/dishonest politicians/accountability” — ahead of taxes, debt/deficit, or energy issues.

And other issues that the Conservative government spends a lot of time talking about — crime, the military, Alberta’s oilsands, or better regulation of wireless services — barely register as priorities, with just 1 per cent of less of Canadians citing those as top of mind issues.

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