As we all know by now, the Harper Government has decided to invest 80 million dollars in a repayable load to Ford to help retool the Essex Engine Plant to build smaller more fuel efficient engines.
Leaving aside the whole debate on whether the government should bail out private enterprises I will rebut the Liberal complaints of pork barreling politics.
Martha Hall Findlay, associate finance critic, went so far as to accuse the prime minister of "pork barrelling and buying votes."
First of all, the Liberals have complained for months that the Conservatives have to do this, and now that they have they criticize it. Now even without having any inside details in this process, I would still say this would take longer then a few weeks to setup. And the whole election speculation has only heated up in the last two weeks or so.
Secondly, the big difference between previous pre-election spending and this announcement is that this money isn't new money. It is coming from a fund already budgeted for this sort of investments in the 2008 budget.
In an afternoon announcement at the plant, Prentice said the government will contribute up to $80 million over five years. He said the money is the first to come out of the government's $250-million, five-year automotive innovation fund that was part of the last federal budget.
Not new spending. Not like the Liberals. Not this time.
4 comments:
Please do not give us the facts. DeYawn and the LIEberals do not like them because it makes the Cons look good.
Thanks for pointing this out .... more ammo for me to use.
Mrs. Findlay is hardly qualified to comment on anything after her great job of designing the Green Shift.
This money is also repayable, not a grant.
bbs, yes you are indeed correct. A repayable loan.
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