The leader of the People’s Alliance of New Brunswick is not impressed by a provincial funding announcement for an IT business which has set up in Moncton.
The Crown-owned Opportunities NB is providing $6.26 million in payroll rebates and forgivable loans to India-based HCL Technologies.
Kris Austin calls this corporate welfare and says it doesn’t work and must stop.
“Tax dollars could be better suited for education and health care and lowering taxes for all businesses as opposed to creating winners and losers through this corporate welfare strategy that continues with Liberal and Conservative governments,” he says.
Austin notes these companies meet their contract requirements and then three or four years later, the company is gone and the employees are left without jobs.
He believes the strategy is also unfair and questions why is it government’s role to pick which companies can get money and which ones can’t.
Austin adds his party is pushing for tax system changes so that all businesses can benefit from lower taxes in a deregulated market.
