Tuesday 22 January 2013

CON hogs at the trough!


pigs at the trough

It comes as no surprise that the Harper government is dispensing corporate welfare, in generous acts of CON cronyism, with taxpayers' money.  

If there's money to be made by accompanying PMSHithead to China, shouldn't these profitable private companies PAY their own way and cover their own business expenses?
The Conservative government covered expenses for some of the country’s top executives as they accompanied the prime minister around China a year ago, a move business leaders and officials defend as a good investment.

The trip signalled a change of approach for Stephen Harper, who for years eschewed the idea of leading big trade offensives abroad.

Then came the China trip last February.

The delegation to three Chinese cities included 30 executives from major oil, agricultural and manufacturing companies as well as roughly two dozen members of the Chinese-Canadian cultural community.

Compare that with a 2009 trip to China — Harper’s first — when he brought along eight people, including Laureen, his stylist and four Chinese-Canadian businesspeople.

The Foreign Affairs Department says local transportation, accommodation, meals and “miscellaneous expenses” incurred by an official delegation is covered by the government. For the 2012 non-governmental participants, that meant an average of $1,200 a person.

Corporations and associations — including Bombardier, Cenovus Nuclear Energy, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and Cameco — confirmed that the government paid for portions of the expenses, with the amount varying from firm to firm.
From here.

Last word to Stephen Lautens who brought this story to our attention.

"What's a Harper photo-op without a paid entourage?"

Hence the photo at the top of this blogpost.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

#HarperNoMore

Anonymous said...

Did you notice that one of the executives/companies actually said that they were surprised they were on the list as they had always insisted that they should pay their own way and that it was inappropriate for taxpayers' money to be used? So if they had paid their own way (it was not clear if this was the case based on the story) what happened to the money? Did someone still claim their expenses even though they had paid for it themselves?

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