Federal Transport Minister Jean Lapierre told a big whopper yesterday in Montreal. When the Liberals' Quebec lieutenant announced Ottawa will hand $350-million to Bombardier Aerospace, he described it as a "repayable contribution." The "repayable" qualifier, which Ottawa dangles every time it subsidizes big business, is meant to reassure taxpayers their money is not being squandered by politicians. But Mr. Lapierre knows it's not true. Pigs will fly before tax money paid to Bombardier is repaid to the federal government.

Bombardier and its subsidiaries had already received $36-million in grants and $736-million in so-called repayable contributions since 1982 from Ottawa. The aerospace company's project to manufacture a new regional jet will cost more than US$2.1-billion and is based on taxpayers paying a third of the cost. The Quebec government also ponied up $110-million for the new jet. So yesterday's $350-million announcement brings the company's total subsidy package from the federal government to $1.12-billion.

Successive industry ministers have touted Bombardier's so-called repayment record, yet none has ever produced an actual repayment number to confirm their statements. And yesterday, the Transport Minister told taxpayers they were protected. If this is true, Mr. Lapierre should come clean and release Bombardier's records. But he won't, because such transparency would only confirm what taxpayers already know - that Bombardier is a corporate welfare sinkhole.

Government documents back this up. Records from Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC), the federal program administering these contributions, indicate that less than 5% of the money it "invested" in projects has been recouped. Moreover, a recent TPC audit states the money will never be recovered.

This is an abysmal record and flies in the face of past assurances from government officials that repayable contributions, given to companies like Bombardier, will be received in full. But why should Mr. Lapierre or Paul Martin care? Their political careers will be over long before the contributions are due.

Ottawa's latest giveaway should leave Canadians aghast. If this were a wise investment, private dollars would flow and there would be no need for tax dollars to be used. But this is a financial lemon and tax money is being squandered. It's another case of government throwing a lifeline to a distressed company because it has good political connections.

Taxpayers don't even know the full extent of Ottawa's corporate welfare program. The $1.12-billion subsidy does not include any loans or financing guarantees provided to Bombardier clients through Export Development Canada (EDC), a government-owned company not required to release its loan portfolio. But Canadian Business magazine reported in 2004 that "of the $6.5-billion in gross loans receivable EDC had outstanding to aerospace customers at the end of 2003, 85% went to Bombardier's customers."

Just last week, EDC provided US$230-million to two subsidiaries of Delta Air Lines. The money came from a $1.2-billion fund established by the federal government in 2003 to aid Bombardier's regional jet sales. A similar loan of US$150-million was provided to Delta in July 2004 to purchase jets from Bombardier.

But Delta Air Lines is hardly a better bet than Bombardier. The U.S. airline is currently facing bankruptcy. The company warned this week it will record a substantial financial loss this year, and will be insolvent if cash reserves continue to fall or its lenders seek payments of its debt.

Whereas governments have an abysmal record of picking winners, corporate losers like Bombardier and its clients have a stellar record of finding government handout programs. As a result, corporate welfare leads to higher taxes as businesses and individual taxpayers end up footing the bill for Ottawa's $4-billion subsidy programs.