CBC’s Rob Antle has updated work done over the past couple of years on government give-aways to private sector businesses in the name of economic development:
The Newfoundland and Labrador government has funnelled more than $20 million into grants, loans and the direct costs of business-attraction initiatives that have provided a net benefit of fewer than 100 new jobs — a quarter of them seasonal.
Faithful readers will notice some familiar names in the story and the associated documents posted with the online version of it.
Kodiak got $8 million to expand its operations at Harbour Grace. They laid off workers instead.That isn’t the only example of that sort of thing happening.
Then, there’s Dynamic Air Shelters,which has more government cash in it than many Crown corporations
None of this is surprising since Newfoundland and Labrador is the only province in Canada where the private sector prefers to be publicly funded.
It’s another way in which the provincial economy has grown increasingly fragile over the past eight years.
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