BOMBARDIER LOAN A FARCE
Taxpayers can take a tiny bit of comfort from the fact the federal government didn’t give Bombardier the $1 billion it was said to be seeking. That’s assuming, of course, that this week’s announcement of a handout wasn’t a down payment on favours to come.
Beyond that sliver of relief, however, there’s no merit in the decision to grant the Montreal-based aerospace manufacturer $373 million in so-called repayable loans.
“The investment I’m announcing today is the right solution for the time and in terms of innovation, jobs and long-term competitiveness for the company,” Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains said of the loan, which he insisted will protect thousands of high-paying technology jobs.
The problem is there’s nothing in the loan arrangement that compels Bombardier to keep jobs in Canada, nor to create new ones.
Besides, the company admits it doesn’t need our money. Its vice-president, Rob Dewar, said in March that “really, the federal funding would just be an extra endorsement” for its CSeries regional passenger jet program.
“That’s really just an extra bonus that would be helpful, but is very clearly not required.”
So the Liberals are crowing about a loan that fails to guarantee jobs and isn’t needed in any case. They have also made an agreement that keeps taxpayers in the dark about any repayment of the advance.
The loan continues the string of corporate bailouts that have flowed to Bombardier. The company has received more than $2 billion in various public funding since the 1960s, including a $350-million loan in 2008 from the Harper Tories.
If the company is as desirable as politicians insist, investors would be flocking to put up their own money in the expectation of a handsome return. Instead, it’s left to hapless taxpayers to ensure the survival of Bombardier and its workers.
The Liberals have embraced the worse sort of pork-barrel politics. If the federal expenditure was driven by true need, for example, where is the money that would clean up abandoned oil and gas wells in the West, many of them without corporate owners because of the economic blow the industry has endured?
Aaron Wudrick, a spokesman for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, does a good job of summarizing the situation: “There are thousands of Canadians every day that lose their jobs, companies that go under. … If you add those together, they’re the size of several Bombardiers. But no one thinks of bailing them out, and I think it’s a problem when we start to treat large companies different than we would any other.”
Taxpayers are being taken for a ride. Bombardier should have to pay its own way.