Continuing coverage of the Industry Canada Techonlogy Partnership Program is CNews, here.
From the article:
A scandal at the federal government's giant technology fund has widened with Industry Canada acknowledging that as many as 15 companies improperly paid commissions to middlemen or lobbyists. (Emphasis mine)
Until Thursday, Industry Canada had acknowledged problems with only four firms...
Now they admit fifteen... interesting...
The fund, created in 1996, has already committed $2.75 billion for 275 projects.
Wow. That's a lot of taxpayer money. A lot of projects. Bet it'll lead to an explosion of world-altering revolutionary technological inventions! But if the program's been up and running nearly a decade, where are the results? Anything like the invention of the telephone? Like the lightbulb? The internal combustion engine? (Anyone know if those inventions came about as a result of taxpayer money being handed out?)... is this value for the money? I say no. Let's end the program.
Now:
This week, (Industry Minister David) Emerson said he was replacing Technology Partnerships Canada with a new program beginning on April 1 next year. The Transformative Technologies Program, to be overseen by an expert panel of business people, is being billed as more transparent and accountable.
Rather a simplistic solution, isn't it? Give it a new name, put in some new, probably Liberal-loyalist "expert" "business people" and claim it's "more transparent and accountable"? What reason is there to believe the Liberals really mean to put an end to this TechScam thing? They've barely done anything much with all the other scams and boondoggles...
