Tories spent Liberal "corporate welfare" fund: Canadian Taxpayers Federation
Toronto Sun April 01, 2019
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is criticizing the Doug Ford government for continuing to dole out money from a fund its predecessor set up to provide financial support to businesses. A Freedom of Information request revealed the Tory government spent $130.7 million out of the Liberals’ Jobs and Prosperity Fund (JPF) last year even though Ford had promised to end “corporate welfare,” CTF Ontario Director Christine Van Geyn said Monday.
Economic Development Minister Todd Smith said his government committed to ending the “New Economy Stream” of the JPF. “What we did do is honour a number of the commitments that were made to businesses by the previous Liberal government,” Smith said. “But as of December, I believe, the New Economy Stream of the JPF is done.”
Ford and the PCs were very critical of this fund, labeling it as: corrupt, corporate welfare, picking winners and losers, benefiting U.S. companies, and handing out money to handpicked insiders including Liberal donors. Given their penchant for cancelling existing contracts, it's contradictory to apparently support these existing contracts but not others, especially in light of how they viewed them during the campaign. As such, in the spirit of their campaign rhetoric and how they continued to quietly use the Jobs and Prosperity Fund which required a FOIA request to uncover, this promise is considered broken.