Rob Shaw: B.C.’s opposition parties demand probe into alleged government grant kickbacks: An electric vehicle manufacturer said it was solicited by the firm administering certain programs; the province says it has found no wrongdoing
This alleged shakedown has an eery similarity to the Shumiatcher Deals of the Tommy Douglas government in Saskatchewan.
Morris Shumiatcher was a lawyer and former Attorney General under Tommy Douglas who would help people secure business development grants from the Saskatchewan government. The process worked that an existing business person would hire Shumiatcher and Shumiatcher would then put together a deal inwhich the applicant would sell shares in their business to Tommy Douglas and Clarence Fines, Fines being the Minister of Finance. Once the shares were purchased Shumiatcher would arrange for the business to receive a very generous grant from the Saskatchewan government for business development. Shortly after the grant was paid the business person would buy back the shares from Tommy Douglas and Clarence Fines at an enormous profit. This scheme was repeated numerous times. The similarity to the current allegations in BC are obvious.
To read more on this scandal and several more I suggest picking up The Road to Jerusalem.
Shumiatcher had numerous legal shenanigans throughout his career and often found himself on the wrong side of the law.
In the early 1960’s Clarence Fines ran off to Grenada with his secretary and a ton of Saskatchewan taxpayer money. One of the last things he did was write a letter to the bank explaining a cheque for $1,500 from the Alberta Distillers was to be deposited into a CCF party slush fund and that Tommy Douglas would be looking after the account henceforth, but that’s a Saskatchewan Mafia story for another day.
https://twitter.com/Martyupnorth_2/status/1776642189491314706
well there ya go. finally found out how T Douglas got picked as ‘the greatest Canadian’ who remembers that one?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/tommy-douglas-crowned-greatest-canadian-1.510403
You’re joking, right? You know the NDP had to apologize for rigging that vote, right?
Tommy beat out the greatest Canadian Terry Fox! Terry was a hero in my opinion!
Wow nothing crooked to see here with Tommy , the CBC ,and Shumiatcher!
The virtue of LEFT leaning governments as Dr. Hayden said in one tutorial——“Almost 100% of all modern day conflicts have resulted because of Left wing governments!”
I have a friend who was involved with a startup that was trying to apply for federal grant money during the Cretin Liberal years. They were told in no uncertain terms that if they made a healthy donation to the Liberal Party, their application would be received far more favorably.
One wonders how The Turd managed to grow his personal fortune by nearly $100 million on a Prime Minister’s salary.
He invested in Baylis Medical and SNC Lavelin, and cashed out after they got giant government contracts?
It should be noted that Edison Motors is otherwise a 100% free market operation, who has received very little interest from the green energy utopians because the Edison Motors system includes a smaller diesel engine as back up for when batteries run low.
The utopians would rather let ‘Perfect’ get in the way of ‘Good Enough’ or ‘This actually works.’
There’s a lesson here for any start-ups within rock throwing distance of ‘green tech’ – you are going to be brought into the grift, even if you don’t want to be a grifter.
BC NDP acting like Trudeau Liberals.
Here’s the Youtube link where the head of Edison Motors explains it. This is nothing new for the BCNDP. Glen Clark was running scams like this in the 90’s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwUMcBdaugQ
Right, I forgot about Glen Clark. Didn’t he go to prison?
Glen Clark never spent a minute in prison. He retired from politics and was rewarded with a vice presidency by none other than Saskatchewan’s favorite son; Jim Pattison. I believe he recently retired from Pattison’s.
I think what people need to understand is that those with the worst personality traits are attracted to power. Once you understand that then you know why politicians need to be watched at all times by a dedicated, independent anti-corruption squad. If anyone needs to be under 24/7 surveillance and have their bank accounts tracked, it’s politicians not ordinary people. If a person chooses the life of political power then they should expect to give up financial privacy.
As a bonus, that may discourage people from being career politicians.
Might want to be careful with this story. Edison applied and were turned down for grants specifically meant for zero emissions projects. They are developing a hybrid. It also mentions that they wanted the money to help with purchasing an old factory. These programs cover capital purchases and other product development costs, not real estate. They probably actually do need help figuring out what funding they might qualify for.
1. There is a private company handing out the grants on behalf of the government. 2. Said companies also offer consulting on obtaining the grants they hand out on behalf of the government. That is wrong on every level.
There is actually zero evidence so far to suggest that the accounting firm is handing out grants. I read they are administering a couple of programs. That likely means as an accounting firm that they are verifying certain qualifications like – are they in fact a Canadian company with a permanent establishment in BC, do they pay taxes in BC etc. It’s possible, but I doubt they have any actual decision making powers regarding the technical eligibility of the application.
There are unfortunately 1000’s of programs for give aways in Canada in every province, all the bigger accounting firms are almost certainly administering some programs. Should they all be prevented from doing work on programs they are not involved in?
I would suggest stopping the free money programs altogether or at least for 10 years. Stop handing out money like it’s not yours! Oh yeah, that’s right, it’s NOT yours.