Federal election 2019: Scheer eyes former B.C. cabinet minister Kevin Falcon to cut corporate welfare
Credit to Author: Scott Brown| Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2019 17:50:10 +0000
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer made a campaign stop at a hotel in Burnaby this morning where he announced that as Prime Minister he would reduce corporate subsidies by $1.5 billion per year.
Scheer said he would appoint former B.C. Liberal cabinet minister Kevin Falcon and former VIA rail CEO Yves Desjardins-Siciliano to co-chair the Commission on the Reduction of Government Subsidy Programs to Corporations. The commission would operate out of the Department of Finance.
“There is a truism I’ve learned watching governments of all stripes throw taxpayer dollars at undeserving corporations. Governments have a terrible record of picking between winners and losers. I’m proud to have been part of a government that eliminated all corporate subsidies, grants and equity investments to individual for-profit businesses,” said Falcon, who served as B.C. finance minister from March 2011 to September 2012 under former Premier Christy Clark.
Kevin Falcon has been pegged by Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer to co-chair a commission to cut corporate subsidies.
Along with reducing annual subsidies by $1.5 billion, the commission’s mandate would also include recommending performance metrics for corporate subsidy programs and reviewing innovation programs to ensure that they are supporting Canadian companies that provide benefits, profits and patents that stay in Canada.
Scheer, who is making his second swing through Metro Vancouver ahead of the Oct. 21 federal election, was scheduled to appear before the Vancouver Sun/The Province editorial board on Saturday afternoon.
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