Ottawa is being urged to stop handing out taxpayers’ money in the form of business subsidies.

The think tank the Fraser Institute has done a little number crunching, and claims since 1982 Industry Canada alone has handed out $13.7 billion to different business endeavours with no expectation of repayment.

“Six billion of it was in the form of grants.  7.4 billion was in the form of loans,” the Fraser Institute’s Mark Milke tells 660News. “And only 28 per cent of that has been re-paid over the last three decades.”

“I mean some of this stuff goes to the largest corporations in the country:  Bombardier, Pratt & Whitney, General Motors, Chrysler,” Milke continues.  “In some cases it also goes to ice cream shops in Manitoba.  Big and small” (companies), “so it just doesn’t make sense.”

Milke, who’s calling on the Harper government to end the practice of what he calls ‘corporate welfare,’ says a better way to assist Canadian businesses would be to cut tax rates.

“The most sensible way to allow business to flourish is not to tax the daylights out of them,” he says. “So you keep your business tax rates low.  That makes a lot more sense than handing out grants or loans to this or that business.”

Milke says the only reason for goverment to give cash to businesses is for political, not economic reasons.