You can always trust the Tories to totally miss the point.
For the past week, Progressive Conservative Leader Paul Davis and his pals have been blasting Premier Dwight Ball with “conflict of interest” allegations because Ball’s company, Jade Holdings, received government money.
Specifically, Jade Holdings got a $400,000 forgivable loan to create 10 new units of affordable housing.
The money was approved in 2015, when the PCs were in power.
Davis’s indignation about it is laughable. It’s almost as funny as when the Tories say anything critical about Muskrat Falls.
Talk about lack of self-awareness. Memo to Davis: your party approved Muskrat Falls. Your party was in charge when the government gave the loan to Ball’s company.
Stunned barely begins to describe it.
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If the Tories are looking for something truly scandalous — it’s their job, after all — they need to broaden their viewpoint.
Yes, the optics are bad when an MHA’s company gets public funds and he later becomes premier. As hardened newshounds are wont to say, it doesn’t pass the smell test.
But there is a far bigger and more insidious issue involved. “Forgivable loan” is merely a euphemism for a gift of public money that doesn’t have to be paid back as long as certain tasks are done — in Jade Holdings’ case, running 10 affordable housing units for 10 years.
This is classic corporate welfare. I usually eschew clichés and catchphrases, but “corporate welfare” is still useful, because no better description has been invented since it was first coined several decades ago.
Observers who are more astute than the Tories will notice a bothersome contradiction.
While Jade Holdings slakes its thirst for government money at the public trough, its owner — the aforementioned Dwight Ball — proclaims that $11.15 per hour is a fair and just minimum wage for low-income Newfoundlanders.
Contradiction, meet hypocrisy: the embattled Newfoundland economy can’t possibly afford a livable minimum wage, but it’s A-OK for its government to hand out free money to business.
Ball isn’t alone. He isn’t the only one to blame. Giving public money to business has become part of the economic culture, if you will. The federal government recently announced with glee and pride its $125-million gift to the so-called “Ocean Supercluster” as part of its $950-million sugar pot to sweeten Canadian business.
Ponder this, and then vow to show some patience with those poor labour leaders who seem to go through life in a constant fit of anger.
This is what it has come to: setting a minimum wage at, say, $15 per hour will supposedly ruin the economy, but it’s acceptable — nay, endorsed and demanded — that governments give hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars to businesses.
Business groups demand mass layoffs of public servants, and hound the government about over-spending and running budget deficits. And yet, regarding businesses benefiting at the public trough … silence.
I invite all other ardent supporters of free enterprise to join me in renouncing this reprehensible hypocrisy.
While we’re at it, let’s issue a request — or even a challenge — to the St. John’s Board of Trade, the Newfoundland and Labrador Employers’ Council and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business: produce a list of your members who have received government money, or aid, loans, tax breaks, etc.
These three groups have been vociferous in their critiques of the government regarding budgets, as well as the minimum wage. Citizens would do well to discredit and ignore everything these groups say unless and until they publicize a full list of their members who get taxpayers’ money, in any amount and in any form.
For too long, a revolting double standard has been accepted in our economy. Public debate rages about whether a $15 minimum wage will destroy the economy. Better to accept that some people just have to live in poverty, unfortunately. Meanwhile, here’s $400,000 for you, $400,000 for you …
Brian Jones is a desk editor at The Telegram. He can be reached at [email protected].
