New technology, same old concept

I see Bombardier has launched a "new family of fuel-efficient, single-aisle commercial airliners" called the CSeries (known as the Green planes program to enviro nuts). To tell you the truth, it's not a bad initiative since these planes will release up to 20 per cent less CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. Plus, when complete, they will fly four times quieter and deliver huge energy savings .

Unfortunately, that's where the compliments end for Bombardier (and this deal) as this announcement was seriously muddied by the fact that Canadian taxpayers will once again be on the hook for these new planes, to the tune of $350 million (funding which was originally approved by the Martin Libs back in '05).

Quite disappointing since this not only proves that the federal tories are the same as the Liberals when it comes to corporate welfare, it also demonstrates that Maxime Bernier, though a shacky Foreign Affairs Minister, wasn't that bad an Industry Minister, at least not as bad as statist Jim Prentice.

Update: Quebec Libertarian Pierre Lemieux has an excellent article on the subject of subsidies and bombardier over at Liberty in Canada. It's definitely worth the read. Great job, Pierre!

Related: Bombardier shares get a lift from C-Series Taxpayers, Coyne Chides aerospace subsidy, On the Dole (pg.18), I think he will get an argument from Tasha on his stance in the last three paragraphs, Taxpayers to risk more then $100,000 per job, CSeries video.