Time for another B.C. Friday Five! 

1. I can’t say enough good things about independent MLA Bob Simpson’s work on the Pacific Carbon Trust. He has been a dogged, principled watchdog. The Trust, desperate to try and improve its terrible public image, released a report this week claiming its corporate welfare “investments” prompted $317 million in activity in B.C.’s economy. Bull-hockey! As the Vancouver Sun has previously reported, 22 of 25 PCT-supported projects were already under way when the Trust decided to throw some of your money at them. The Trust should go—and save taxpayers $14 million a year in corporate welfare.

2. For a deeper look at just how widespread corporate welfare is, check out Mark Milke’s paper on Industry Canada, released this week by the Fraser Institute:

I found that between 1982 and 2012, the federal Department of Industry spent $13.7 billion on subsidies to business (not adjusted for inflation). That works out to $456.6 million per year on average from a single federal department.

Of the $13.7 billion, $6 billion (44.3 per cent) was disbursed with no repayment expected — grants, in other words. A much smaller amount, $236 million (1.7 per cent) was paid out after various businesses defaulted on loans previously guaranteed by Industry Canada.

Another $7.4 billion (54 per cent) was in the form of loans (“repayable contributions” in government language). Where repayments occur, the track record is poor. Of the $7.4 billion expended since 1982 in repayable contributions, just over $2.1 billion (28.8 per cent) has been repaid to taxpayers.

Those are your tax dollars at work. Shameful.

3. It’s a tale of two responses. With natural gas royalties down, new B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong has a $241 million gap in this year’s budget. His response: efficiency: a hiring freeze, a pay freeze and “extreme controls” on discretionary spending like travel (what took you so long, Mike?).

The NDP response? From CKNW’s 12:30 news yesterday:

News anchor Terry Schintz: But de Jong says the government will present a balanced budget next February, just three months before going to the polls.

NDP Finance critic Bruce Ralston says the Liberals always have the option of running another deficit next year. He points out the government has changed its own balanced budget legislation in the past to give it more time.

Bruce Ralston: That may happen here as well, so that's an option. Their record on balancing the budget isn't that great. I mean, over the last 11 years they've balanced the budget about half the time.

Is Bruce suggesting deficit budgets would be an option for his government? Hasn’t B.C. had enough of robbing our future to pay for today?

Meanwhile, John Cummins inexplicably claims “that B.C.'s economy is doing better than the B.C. Liberals care to admit. And that means that the province's finances are considerably better than they want to acknowledge.”

Don’t know of many governments that underplay economic recovery when they are trying to present themselves as the best managers of an economy.

4. If you missed it, check out my speech to the Surrey Board of Trade yesterday, where I examine the carbon tax in light of its negative effects on Surrey’s economy. It’s a winner.

5. And from our Ontario director, Gregory Thomas, comes this fantastic op/ed on that province’s teacher dispute. Great stuff.