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The grand total for the 94 days since the House of Commons last convened: 1,447 cheques presented by Liberal cabinet ministers and Liberal MPs worth a combined $7.8 billion.

By comparison, the Harper Conservatives, during the 83-day long summer after their 2011 majority win, distributed 457 cheques worth a combined $3.8 billion.

These numbers come from an exclusive database maintained by the National Post of every single spending announcement made by the federal government since the 2008 general election.

The gazebo in question isa new picnic shelter in Rockland, N.B., built with $13,482 in federal funds, funds that came from a special pool of money set aside for infrastructure projects to mark next year’s 150th anniversary of Canada.

That fund, known as the Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Programand worth $150 million a year, was established by the Harper Conservatives in the 2015 budget. At the time, Liberal MPs Judy Sgro and Adam Vaughan derided it as nothing more than a pre-election “slush fund” that Conservative MPs could dip into for some easy publicity via cheque-handout photo opps.

But once in government, the Liberals renewed this “slush fund” for another year with another $150 million and, over the summer, it was among the most popular envelopes of money from which Liberal MPs drew a cheque.

Overall, 108 cheques were written to be drawn from the Canada 150 fund worth a combined $11 million, including the one from Liberal MP T.J. Harvey, who was on hand to smile for the cameras in celebration of Rockland’s new gazebo.