TORONTO: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) reacted with dismay to the announcement of a $3.5 billion federal and Ontario government bailout to Ford, Chrysler, and GM. CTF federal spokesperson, Kevin Gaudet, said "throwing good money after bad won't fix big auto but it will drive Canada and Ontario further into deficit."

"The big three are a bottomless pit, having already burned through $782 million of taxpayer cash in Canada over the last five years," Gaudet continued. "Each announcement of government cash support was followed by downsizing, layoffs of Canadian workers, and the demand for even more cash by the big three. Be assured, these companies will be back for more before spring."

Last week at Congressional hearings in the United States Mr. Mark Zandi, Chief Economist of Moody's, testified that the big three will require between $75 billion and $125 billion to avoid bankruptcy.

"Going into deficit to hand tax dollars to US-based companies that may still go bankrupt is absurd. It prolongs the inevitable restructuring the industry must go through to become profitable again and, it establishes a precedent for other industries. The new policy in Canada appears to be one of 'run a successful company and your government will tax you excessively, run your company poorly and your government will come running with buckets of other peoples' money.' Shame on both these governments."

In June 2004 Stephen Harper told the Toronto Board of Trade, "It was an NDP leader, David Lewis, who coined the term corporate welfare bums in 1972. Unfortunately, in the past 30 years, too many corporations have been drawn into this trap by the available plethora of government loans, grants, and subsidies."