ARC Productions, a movie and TV animation company, abruptly closed its doors on August 1, locking out its 500 employees, who became unemployed and the company won't have to repay a $23 million dollar government grant it got through a splashy photo taken with Elton John in 2009.
ARC, which was one of the largest animation studios, cited a "cash crunch", that caused its principal lender to seek a court-appointed receiver to take possession. The staff is owed their wages under the 2009 agreement and was to create 200 jobs over five years.
The loan was part of a business assistance funding program that began in 2004. Auditor General, Bonnie Lysyk, flagged $1.45 billion, with 80% awarded in a secret process, by invitation, only to certain companies. This raises questions about why they were chosen.
Opinions were sharply divided at Queen's Park, resulting in a couple of gems. P.C, M.P.P. Monte McNaughton, said the company's failure is why he's been pressing the government, for six months, to release a comprehensive list of their handouts to corporations and details on how many jobs were created. To quote:
"The government needs to come clean, so, all taxpayers (meaning capitalists) can see whether they're getting value for money." He also called it 'crony capitalism' (is there another kind?), with no transparent guidelines, targets, or measurement of results."
Of course, Economic Development Minister, Brad Duguid, was swift to defend the government with this goodie:
"You can't hold a company responsible to operate forever because they're operating in the real world."
One wonders what Brad-baby would call the real world. The Business Assistance Fund is just another reform and in the real world, reforms have been shown to have little temporary and no permanent value. The only difference is, the one Mr. Duguid is defending, has no temporary value either, as the unemployment figures clearly attest.
John Ayers.
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