Last week the CTF released a shocking study that documents over $11 billion distributed by Industry Canada during the past 16 years. Almost 50% of this assistance was earmarked for 75 of Canada's most successful companies and our analysis reveals that many of these companies still owe billions of dollars to taxpayers.

This story made headlines across the country but has quickly faded from the limelight. Thankfully, the CTF will continue to release different information from the study to keep it on the top of the public policy agenda. We have already scolded the government for this offensive waste of money. This week it's time to take aim at the opposition parties.

From a political point of view, the opposition should jump all over this one. It is simple to understand, the facts are evident and disturbing, and the government continues to dole out money to some of its biggest debtors. Moreover, this is a non-partisan issue. All parties can argue that the money could be better distributed to other priorities instead of corporate welfare.

We're sure that Minister Manley's bureaucrats worked feverishly last week to prepare him with lines for an anticipated onslaught of Question Period (QP) attacks. Too bad the opposition dropped the ball.

Not a single question in QP this week on this issue.

One opposition strategist noted "there's a lot of traffic in the mix this week" and corporate welfare is not on the freeway, instead "it's stuck in the collector lanes." Another strategist from another party asked: "What's the big deal What's so wrong with government assistance to business " The answer is clear: everything is wrong with corporate welfare!

Market decisions should be made by the market, NOT by politicians and bureaucrats. The role of the market is to direct investment to projects. To try and replace or mimic this judgment through government intervention is fundamentally flawed.

Corporate Welfare is NOT driven by market imperatives. Market investments are driven by people who weigh reward against risk. Political investments are driven by imperatives like how many make-work jobs and how many votes will this produce

Corporate welfare is inherently unfair. Business subsidies create an uneven playing field. Credit and capital can be diverted from successful firms to less successful, politically connected firms. In addition, firms that do not receive government assistance indirectly subsidize their government-supported competitors through their corporate income taxes.

Corporate welfare runs contrary to free enterprise. Business owners can become so enamoured and adept at securing government grants that they lose sight of their core competencies, those being the creation of wealth and maximization of product/service value.

Corporate welfare creates a culture of dependency. Business owners become so reliant on government assistance that they actually build the expectations of such assistance into financial plans for various ventures.

Corporate welfare means higher taxes. Inevitably it is taxpayers who end up paying the bill for years of corporate welfare.

So while the opposition dithers, taxpayers continue to get run over by the multinational limos that speed down the express lanes to Ottawa for corporate welfare handouts. We can only hope the congestion on the QP freeway thins out soon.