Skip to main content

“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

DAN ALBAS -- The results of this access to information data is alarming - each job has cost the equivalent of more than $159,000 per year


The official opposition has the responsibility to hold the Government to account. Part of this responsibility means looking at how the government spends your money on programs, projects and services to determine if there is value and results being delivered for taxpayers.

The opposition is also assisted in the work that we do through journalists, who not only hold the Government to account, but also the opposition- in fact all elected officials and all the citizens we represent.


One journalism organization that many Canadians outside of Ottawa may not have heard of is 'Blacklock’s Reporter' ,  a unique investigative news organization who stands alone in being the only reporter-owned and operated newsroom in Ottawa.

Recently through a series of access to information requests, Blacklock’s reviewed the Trudeau Liberal Government’s billion dollar 'Strategic Innovation Fund'.  This fund falls under the responsibility of Navdeep Bains ... Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development.

For the record I am the shadow cabinet critic for this Ministry.

The results of this access to information data, as reported by Blacklock’s, is alarming. Publicly Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Government boasted that this program had loaned out a billion dollars and helped “to create nearly 56,000 jobs”. Is this claim accurate? 

In a word ... NO.

The access to information data reveals that in reality, as of March 31st of this year, only 6,613 jobs have been created.

To put that figure into perspective a total $1,051,716,827 in funding has been approved by the Trudeau Liberal Government, meaning each job has cost the equivalent of more than $159,000 per.

Records further revealed that of the $1.05 billion loaned out to date, only about half, a total $566.4 million, is due to be repaid with just over 50% due to be repaid by 2041.

It has not been explained why there is a deficiency of over 49,000 fewer jobs then what has been publicly claimed.

My question this week:

“Do you feel that the Liberals billion dollar ‘Strategic Innovation Fund’ is meeting your expectations?”

 

I can be reached at Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca
Call toll free 1 (800) 665-8711



Dan Albas … is the Conservative Member of Parliament for the riding of Central Okanagan – Similkameen – Nicola.

He is currently the Shadow Minister of Innovation, Science, Economic Development and Internal Trade and sits on the Standing Committee on Industry, Science, and Technology.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

GORDON F. D. WILSON: When The Trick Masquerades as The Treat

Thirty-seven years ago, Halloween 1987, I became the leader of the BC Liberal Party.   British Columbia was badly polarized. Social Credit held one side and the NDP the other. It had been twelve years, 1975, since Liberal MLAs Garde Gardom, Pat McGeer, and Alan Williams had walked away from their party to join Social Credit, one year after the lone Progressive Conservative MLA Hugh Curtis had abandoned his party to sit with Bill Bennett, the son and heir apparent to long-serving BC Premier, WAC Bennett.   An unwritten agreement by the biggest Canadian political shareholders, the federal Liberals and Conservatives, decided that if British Columbia was to remain a lucrative franchise from a revenue perspective, they couldn’t risk splitting the electoral vote and electing the real enemy, the NDP, so no resources would be used to finance either a Liberal or Conservative party provincially.   “There are two sides to every street,” I was told by a very prominent Canadian businessman who cont

FORSETH: You Have To Be A Bit Crazy

  Ward and his wife Carleen celebrating his win on election night.   In March of this year, I took on the role of Campaign Manager for BC Conservative candidate Ward Stamer.  It’s the third time I’ve had the opportunity as I took on the role for Peter Sharp in 2013, and for Dennis Giesbrecht in 2020. Now let me tell you, in the past, a BC Conservative campaign team generally consisted of myself, the candidate and one or two helpers – and very little in the way of a campaign budget. Thankfully, a benefit of having spent 30+ years in the broadcast media afforded me the ability to do ad copy and write candidate speeches, and prep both Dennis and Peter to deal with the media – it’s also something I have always enjoyed. That was part of my duties this time around as well, however having a team of a dozen and a half volunteers meant that for the first time we had people available to ID our supporters, put together and install campaign signs, distribute campaign literature, and help out at ou

Rustad will support policy for 'everyday' people, otherwise work to bring down NDP

  Conservative Party of B.C. John Rustad Tuesday (Oct. 29) said his party would support government policies that support "average, everyday working" persons in B.C., but also repeated earlier promises to bring down the B.C. NDP government under Premier David Eby. "If there are things that are moved forward that will improve lives for those people, we would be looking at support it," Rustad said. "But if he's going to carry forward with the destructive policies that he has, then yes, we are going to look at every opportunity possible to bring him down as soon as possible."  CLICK HERE for the full story

Labels

Show more