CTF Releases New Study on the Greening of Corporate Welfare and the Costs to Come

OTTAWA, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today released a new study warning that corporate welfare giveaways are growing and increasingly justified as green initiatives. The study, entitled Corporate Welfare Cash: 21st Century Justifications and Billion-Dollar Bills to Come, looks at trends in corporate welfare since 2000 and shows governments are racking up huge bills as traditional corporate welfare is shifting towards an increasing number of green initiatives. “Old habits die hard, and the consequences will be very expensive for taxpayers,” said study author Mark Milke. “Rather than concede corporate welfare doesn’t work, governments have instead come up with a new justification for taxpayer subsidies to private businesses.” A analysis of government subsidies from 2000-2016 found that projects with a ‘green’ or ‘renewable’ focus were the dominant recipients of subsidies from the federal department of Natural Resources Canada (79% of all subsidies) and the provinces of Ontario (96%) and Alberta (67%).