Is Harper Mooning Us With His Corporate Welfare Bum?

I read a rather interesting article today by Murray Dobbin of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. He had a few pointed questions about Harper's apparent claim to be planning to eliminate corporate welfare.

Dobbin parsed through some of Harper's comments on the issue, and described example where Harper indicated Liberal government waste, but failed to indicate he would get rid of the program responsible. The program in question is the Technology Partnerships Program, created by Paul Martin, which has given away an estimated 6.4 billion, and less than 1% of that money has been paid back.

The interesting bit was that Harper did not claim he would scuttle the program, merely that he would have it reviewed by Sheila Fraser. In Dobbin's words:

He managed to associate himself with a Canadian hero, Auditor General Sheila Fraser, while making no commitment to empty one of Bay Street's favourite troughs. He even quoted former NDP leader David Lewis's familiar phrase “corporate welfare bums” from the early 1970s. (click here for the full article)

Dobbin goes on to point out that Harper also failed to mention one of the greatest corporate welfare bum industries in the country: oil and gas. Between 1971 and 1999 the oil and gas industry received over 40 billion in subsidies, while during that same period sustainable energy industries received only 200 million.

Givent the kind of sustained profits the oil and gas industry has made over the decades, this kind of subsidy is simply outrageous. The NEP may have been a foolish imposition under Trudeau, but these kinds of tax payer handouts to an industry that rakes in the cash is hard to justify.

Dobbin describes one possible motivation for Harper's silence on the issue of oil and gas and corporate government handouts:

Oil-industry executives virtually created Harper's first political party, Reform, personally vetting Manning and his idea for a genuinely free-market conservative party. When they had finished checking Manning out, they blessed him, gave the party millions of dollars and told him to move from Edmonton to Calgary so they could keep an eye on him.

This I already knew, and given the deep attachements to the industry that Harper has in his past, I'm entirely unsurprised he would not bother to mention the kind of free lunch the industry receives.

I think there is some considerable potential for serious cost savings should the next government seriously cut back on the kind of graft that takes place in favour of corporations and at the expense of tax payers. But given Harper's lack of specifics, I have my doubts he'd  deliver.

Moreover, given the kind of big spending he wants to do, I just can't see how Canada will be able to cover the bills. I don't think Harper will run a deficit should he get elected. Frankly, I think he'll cut as deeply as he has to into social programs, and anything else not labeled military. Even health care will go to an immediate two tier system, with the Harper argument being that it simply recognizes the current reality.

Not a pretty picture, that wide corporate ass, bulging with all those fat profits. It's particularly true, given the kind of hardship most Canadians have had to swallow over the past decade of cut-backs. I think we're past due for a real change. Harper will only be more of the same, only worse.