More Money for Quebec

[jdobbin]

Some of the financial columnists weigh in on the corporate welfare.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/columni...1e-39b71abb96b4

n the bad old days, the federal Liberal government handed out money to its friends in the aerospace sector, picking winners and doing a terrible job of collecting billions of dollars of "repayable" loans, subsidies, or whatever else you want to call free money.

Of course, the Tories were against all that. "It is in the interest of all Canadians ? to move away from state corporatism and toward an open, unsubsidized and productive economy," Stephen Harper, the future prime minister, said in early 2002.

In late 2004, his industry critic James Rajotte said "a Conservative government would take an alternative approach to industrial development and reduce and eventually eliminate subsidies to for-profit business."

Quite a change of tune from Canada's New Government.

[Michael Bluth]

Some of the financial columnists weigh in on the corporate welfare.

Quite a change of tune from Canada's New Government.

Quite the biased quoting from the column.

If you want to read a little further:

Mr. Bernier insisted this program is new and improved. Recipients will have to pay back the money faster -- within 15 years, rather than 20-plus. Their repayment track record will be published on the Web for all to see if they're keeping to their pledges. Repayments will be based on revenue, not profits years down the road once specific R&D initiatives they fund reach the market. And the money will flow to Ottawa sooner than under TPC.

Seems like Canada's New Government is running a far more accountable and transparent Government than we ever saw under the Liberals. Are people complaining that better isn't good enough?

[Keepitsimple]

This program is a substitite for the Liberals Technology Partners Program - which was spending $220 million per year. As other posters have said, it's structured completely different - it doesn't hand out money.....for every dollar a company gets for R & D, the company has to put in 3 or 4 dollars themselves. They also have to start paying back when the R & D is complete - not as before "when the product is commercially viable". That was one big, fat reason why the old program never got paid back - most of the R & D resulted in no viable product. As for how much Quebec gets, I heard Maxime Bernier say each project would be evaluated on it's own merit and projects would come from BC, Manitoba, Quebec and one other place that eludes me. The aerospace industry is very competitive and heavily subsidized in other countries so to some extent, we must give it a hand. The Conservative approach seems appropriate - it's not Welfare as most if not all, will eventually be paid back. We'll see...but it seems to make sense.

[jdobbin]

This program is a substitite for the Liberals Technology Partners Program - which was spending $220 million per year. As other posters have said, it's structured completely different - it doesn't hand out money.....for every dollar a company gets for R & D, the company has to put in 3 or 4 dollars themselves. They also have to start paying back when the R & D is complete - not as before "when the product is commercially viable". That was one big, fat reason why the old program never got paid back - most of the R & D resulted in no viable product. As for how much Quebec gets, I heard Maxime Bernier say each project would be evaluated on it's own merit and projects would come from BC, Manitoba, Quebec and one other place that eludes me. The aerospace industry is very competitive and heavily subsidized in other countries so to some extent, we must give it a hand. The Conservative approach seems appropriate - it's not Welfare as most if not all, will eventually be paid back. We'll see...but it seems to make sense.

In 2002, Harper said this:

"It is in the interest of all Canadians ? to move away from state corporatism and toward an open, unsubsidized and productive economy."

And what the National Post thinks of the scheme:

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/columni...1e-39b71abb96b4

SADI is not the end of corporate welfare, and not much of an improvement over TPC. It is not clear SADI will be more effective than past programs at recouping aid to business. The details are a bit fuzzy: SADI investments "do not have a prescribed rate of return," SADI director Roch Chouinard said. "It's on a case by case basis. Higher risk projects will yield higher returns," but Ottawa "will share in risk and reward."

Which is to say, don't necessarily expect Ottawa to do any better at collecting than it has in the past. As of last August, the feds had recouped $180-million of the $3.7-billion provided in repayable contributions to business over the past 10 years. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation found that from April, 1982, to March, 2006, just 17.6% of repayable money had been recouped.

Most of the money is going to Quebec. That is where the announcement was made.

When the Liberals announced the same type of program, Harper screamed blue murder.

[Michael Bluth]

Most of the money is going to Quebec. That is where the announcement was made.

When the Liberals announced the same type of program, Harper screamed blue murder.

The devil is in the details. Much more stringent rules for repayment.