PUBLICATION | WINNIPEG FREE PRESS |
DATE : | THU MAY.23,2002 |
PAGE : | A15 |
CLASS : | Focus |
EDITION : | |
Letters to the Editor
So-called loans have high price
Thank you to columnist Leslie Millin (Start collecting those federal loans, May 14) for drawing attention to the ridiculous payback record of the federal technology partnership loans.
Successive ministers of industry have shovelled $1.6 billion into this program since 1996. Approximately $22 million, or 1.3 per cent, has been paid back and no one seems too concerned about the remaining 98 per cent. Compare this to the Canada Student Loan Program where 96 per cent of loans are paid back and the federal government mercilessly hounds the remaining four per cent of students, garnishing their wages and seizing tax returns if necessary.
It's also worth noting who gets these so-called loans. First of all, they often go to large, established companies who don't need the assistance to do research and development in technology. (Why did the federal government give $33 million to IBM?) Not only that, there are no outcomes or reasonable expectations such as expansion or job creation associated with this money.
Most disturbing, however, is the apparent connection between these massive loans and donations to the Liberal party. Between 1996-2000, Bombardier received $87 million in TPC loans and donated $411,713.00 to the Liberals. Pratt & Whitney was given $301 million in loans and dutifully coughed up $131,373. Engineering giant SNC Lavelin received $8.7 million and tithed back $129,656. The list goes on.
It is time to come clean about the technology partnership loans. These aren't loans. They are corporate welfare of the worst kind.
It's not lost on westerners that the Liberals refuse to give Prairie farmers the $1.3 billion they need to defend themselves against the American farm bill subsidies, yet they'll shovel $1.6 billion into huge, successful eastern corporations without hesitation. Something is terribly wrong with this picture.
Pat Martin
Member of Parliament
Winnipeg Centre
