“And so the Sick Man of Canada, and its premier, now has a choice: Speak the truth about what is really happening and prepare people for what must be done; or give (another) speech, evasive, bland and political.”
- Jeffrey Simpson, The Globe and Mail, February 8, 2012

Premier McGuinty doesn’t need another expert or economist to tell him that massive taxpayer savings can be found by putting an immediate end to corporate welfare, Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak said today.

“Dalton McGuinty knows now that next week will bring an indictment against his years of fiscal and economic mismanagement,” Hudak said. “Nowhere should that be more evident than in his government’s record on corporate handouts.”

Hudak was joined in his remarks by Finance Critic Peter Shurman, who cited a December 2011 report from the Fraser Institute showing that in 2008-09, the McGuinty Liberals shelled out $2.7 billion in handouts to businesses: “That works out to about $425.00 for each and every Ontarian who paid income tax in 2008,” Shurman said.

For added context, Hudak noted, the report tallies the total corporate welfare outlay between 2003 and 2008 (the last year for which there is StatsCan data) under Dalton McGuinty to $15.7 billion – nearly the size of the current deficit.

Since then, the Fraser Institute has identified further examples of corporate welfare under Dalton McGuinty, including the following:

• Since 2008, one program called the Next Generation Jobs Fund committed some $714 million in support to 33 projects
• Between 2005 and 2010, the Advanced Manufacturing Investment Strategy made loan commitments of more than $160 million, and
• Since 2010, the Strategic Jobs and Investment Fund has provided support of more than $52.4 million in grants and $31 million in loans.

“This would all be bad enough even if these handouts had some beneficial effect,” Shurman said. “But the report goes on to state that peer-reviewed research does not support the claim that corporate welfare has any meaningful impact on economic growth and job creation.”

In short, Hudak concluded, “Dalton McGuinty spent money we do not have, on boondoggles we can’t afford, with results he can’t even point to – and sat on the evidence of his failure through the entire 2011 election campaign.

“Perhaps next week we will finally see his day of reckoning.”