Stump vs $500k armoured vehicle. Who wins? Just this past week I’ve sent out six freedom of information or FOIP requests. A FOIP is a tool that we use that helps us pry information out of governments and government agencies in order to do the independent, investigative journalism that we do.  One of these FOIPs is going to the Edmonton Police Service to figure out just how much it’s going to cost them to fix the $500,000 armoured vehicle they bought just last year after it ran into every tank’s mortal enemy—a tree stump.  But that’s just one FOIP. We get excellent tips all the time from people deep within the government and sometimes the best way to confirm them is with an adroit FOIP request. So with this recent batch we’re not just FOIPing the Edmonton Police but we’re also FOIPing the ministry of health to try and understand just how badly they’ve cocked up their response to the opioid poisoning crisis.  FOIP requests aren’t free. Even though this is public information held by a public body they charge us $25 per request. And sometimes they even come back with ridiculously high fees in order to provide this public information.  So if you have a few extra bucks to spare the best way to support our independent, investigative journalism is to become a recurring donor. These small, regular donations give us the stability we need to continue to hold the rich and powerful to account.  And if you just want to cover the cost of a couple of FOIPs (or say a cool dozen) you can also make a one-time donation here. We understand if you can’t donate. One thing that everyone can do though is to try and guess, Price-is-Right style, just how much it’s going to cost to fix the Edmonton Police Service’s big toy. You can put your guesses on this Twitter thread Jim started or just reply to this email.  The winner gets a Progress Alberta t-shirt. Thanks so much for all you do, from all of us here at the Progress Report Duncan Kinney Editor, The Progress Report