Toronto Sun: Corporate Welfare Bums, We Want Our Money!

By LINDA LEATHERDALE




Business brass, let me ask: What would you rather have?

A tax cut or a corporate welfare cheque?

It boggles the mind when the fair thing to do is give all businesses a break by cutting taxes, our government continues to dole out our hard-earned tax dollars to a handful of players -- with some of Canada's corporate elite among them.

I'm talking about an addiction to corporate welfare in this country, totalling $144 billion between 1995 and 2004, with a few companies never being able to break the habit of feasting at the tax trough.

Take Bombardier: Since 1982, this Montreal giant, which incorporated Canadair and De Havilland Inc. into its empire, got $723 million in subsidies, but has repaid only $188 million, according to the latest Corporate Welfare report by think tank, the Fraser Institute.

Bombardier, whose family ranks among the 100 wealthiest in Canada with a net worth of $1.27 billion, isn't alone. Another Quebec company, Pratt & Whitney has received $1.25 billion in assistance since 1982. Together, these firms are the two top recipients of government subsidies and loans.

But there are many more, like Ford Motor Company, Rolls-Royce, Noranda, IBM, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, who are listed among the 50 top business subsidy recipients. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.torontosun.com/Money/Columnists/Leatherdale_Linda/2007/11/23/4678227.html

...fascists run everything there just like they do here in the U.S. Their best and their brightest also happen to be the greediest!

considering it is one of the most rabid right wing papers. It's target audience is the angry, slightly ignorant working man, all men (a la Sunshine Girl) and the libertarians, hence all the pages spent on sports and all the want ads for hookers.

It is especially ironic since the paper is run by Quebecor who happens to have as its chairman the Right (dis)Honourable Brian Mulroney, ex-Prime Minister (Conservative) of Canada, who being from Quebec, pumped billions into Bombardier when he was PM.

Also to note, Brian Mulroney is now under investigation for taking a $300,000 (cash) bribe from the airline industry, on the last day of his term as PM. But even worse he is a major league whiner, its nauseating.

The Sun runs stuff like this every once in awhile to appeal to its angry white guy base, but believe me, the paper would open its ass up wide an let the government shovel money in if given the opportunity. And they just might, since their circulation is dropping faster then the DJI.

A note to the above, the concentration of wealth in Canada is nearly as bad as in the US and just as full of pretentious dipshits. But the thing is, they think if push came to shove they could play with the big boys and girls of US money, not realizing of course they would be served up cold like steak tartar.

Does not seem fair. Bombardier did however, step in a few years ago and buy out a bankrupt OMC - rebuilding it to success and saving tens of thousands of jobs in the US in the process. If and when these companies are cut off at the knees, likely they will continue to move their operations elsewhere for a more appreciative host while maintaining their financial positions.

with Canadian tax dollars. They don't need us (Canadians) to cut 'em off at the knees to send the jobs to another country, we pay them to do it!

Point was, when the cost of doing business increases (from whatever causes)to the extent it makes relocation a cost-saving advantage, Bombardier and other for profit corporations will MOVE from Canda, the US or any other country. If it is ironic now, it could be much worse later.

Another libertarian paying lip service to our corporate elite, namely Bombardier in this case?

These companies make record surplus year after year. Bombardier asked for pay cuts to the workers while making 100M$ profits a year. They used the first opportunity to "predict a possible loss of profits" and then move a good part of the manufacturing jobs straight from Quebec to Mexico where they offered the local workers a huge salary of 2$ an hour. It was all over the papers here, in Quebec, some time ago.

Fact is, companies are making record profits these years. The wealth is getting more and more concentrated in less hands than ever before. That, alone, would be pretty ugly. To make things worse, their buddies control every layer of government, use our fu..'ing taxes to get subventions and their friends to avoid paying any damned tax.

On edit: I totally agree about the Toronto Sun. Waste of paper. And the Fraser Institute is nothing but another libertarian pro-corporate propaganda tool.