Not one to miss a trend, the BC government is following Alberta's late 1980s and early 1990s approach to job creation: give away taxpayer cash as fast as possible to private businesses.

A decade ago, then-Alberta Premier Don Getty often argued taxpayer money for private business was necessary in order to "diversify" Alberta's economy. No private enterprise was beyond the help of a generous provincial government: Pulp mills, waste treatment plants, high-tech enterprises - all received generous dollops of taxpayer cash, loans, and/or loan guarantees. In one spectacular flameout, the Alberta government eventually wrote off over $646 million on a failed "diversification" investment effort with Novatel, a Calgary-based communications company.

And that was only one taxpayer-financed "investment." Between 1980 and 1996, the Alberta government flushed $2.6 billion worth of taxpayer money down the fiscal drain thanks to soured loan guarantees and taxpayer cash giveaways. Eventually, and in no small part thanks to relentless pounding from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and others, the Alberta government passed a 1996 law that outlawed business loans, loan guarantees, and grants of over $1 million unless specifically voted on in the Legislature.

Enter BC Premier Glen Clark. Repeating Alberta's failed government-as-venture-capitalist experiment, the BC government has: risked $329 million worth of taxpayer cash in share purchases, road-building, and deferred stumpage fees to Prince Rupert's Skeena Cellulose Mill, bought $60 million of non-voting, no-guarantee-of-dividend shares for Kelowna's Western Star truck plant, given another $25 million of taxpayer dollars to train Western Star's employees, provided Daimler-Benz and its partners with a $19.5 million interest-free loan, financed $8 million for Delta-based Avcorp and served up $5.2 million in free cash to "help" Avcorp train its employees.

And in its latest corporate kiss, Glen Clark and Co. has provided a $17.5 million loan to Abbotsford's Conair, repayable at "commercial rates" according to the government. (Question: If this loan is so safe for taxpayers as Mr. Clark claims it is, why did Conair not get a regular bank loan at "commercial rates" ) Conair also gets another taxpayer freebie of $5 million for - you guessed it - training.

The Clark government gets full marks for hypocrisy with these deals, having built their political careers on slamming "corporations," only to now cut cheques to these same corporations under the banner of "training." If it waddles and quacks like a corporate subsidy, it is a corporate subsidy.

Hypocrisy aside, the Premier and friends justify the taxpayer-financed subsidies (money that must be borrowed since the BC government has no surplus taxpayer money) in part, by arguing such taxpayer giveaways would help, wait for it - "diversify"- the economy.

Of course, BC taxpayers may actually recoup some or all of the Western Star's $60 million "investment" back, the $19.5 million Daimler Benz dollars, and the $8 million Avacorp loan. Maybe they'll even get some interest back. But then again, maybe not.

And one thing is for sure: The $25 million in "training" money for Western Star is gone. The $5.2 million and $5 million in training cash dished out to Avacorp and Conair is not coming back. And taxpayers should prepare themselves to one day be on the hook for the $329 million risked on Skeena Cellulose if Alberta's past experience is any guide.

Added up, that's not quite the magnitude of the $2.6 billion in taxpayer cash blown in Alberta. But wait a few years. The premier has promised there are more deals to come.