This past week we shook the pillars at Industry Canada with the release of our study entitled: Corporate Welfare: A Report on Sixteen Years of Industry Canada Financial Assistance.

We found that Industry Canada authorized over $11.2 billion of assistance during the past 16 years to other levels of government, not-for-profit groups and businesses. But these just weren't any ordinary businesses; we're talking about some of Canada's corporate icons.

In fact, almost 50% of this assistance, a whopping 5.6 billion dollars was earmarked for 75 of Canada's most profitable and successful companies. And over 18% of the total eleven billion was destined for five companies. "Yes" five companies only were authorized to receive $2.1 billion.

Our report analyzed over 32,000 separate authorizations across 60 major departmental programs. Thirty of these programs loaned over $3.2 billion to various companies and to date, only 15% of this money has been repaid. In addition, two programs stand out for special mention.

The now-defunct Defence Industry Productivity Program (DIPP) lent out over $2.1 billion, mainly to aerospace companies, between 1982 and 1997 and to date, only $136 million has come back to taxpayers. This stellar 6.35% repayment ratio is due to the type of loans that were authorized.

Unlike your mortgage or a personal loan with a fixed and constant repayment schedule, the feds in their infinite wisdom, decided to make their loans to business "conditionally repayable." Plainly put, this means loan repayments are based on royalties generated through various combinations of product sales and profit levels.

Of course most of the optimistic sales projections have not materialized, therefore royalties have not flown back into the federal treasury, and you guessed it, taxpayers are left holding the bag.

The other program that catches our eye is Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC). The government loves to trumpet this "new' program as its flagship initiative and the model for partnering with the private sector. To date, over $450 million has been loaned out to companies in the environmental, biotechnology and aerospace industries.

The Minister of Industry calls these loans "targeted strategic repayable investments." But these nice sounding words merely masquerade the fact that these loans are the same type of conditionally repayable contributions that were granted willy nilly under the old DIPP program. And many of the same companies that prospered, and have not repaid completely, under the DIPP program are now lined up for TPC money.

Our stand is clear. Corporate welfare must end, NOW. Governments have an abysmal record in picking winners and losers. That's why Alberta outlawed business loans over $1 million unless the legislature specifically approves them. Besides, this is a job for the markets, not for venture capitalist wannabe bureaucrats.

If the feds really want help business, it can start by lowering taxes, cutting red tape and ensuring that our education system (scholarly and apprentice) is producing the best graduates possible.

Former NDP leader David Lewis coined the term "corporate welfare" in 1972. Twenty-six years later, government still hasn't learned its lesson but taxpayers pay the price.