Government reverses course on secret loans

The federal government agreed on Thursday to disclose the recipients of loans, made through a $20 million fund, which were previously going to be kept secret.

The contribution agreement that provided the federal tax dollars does not require the two groups handing out the loans to disclose the recipients publicly, and earlier spokespeople for one of the groups and for FedDev – the development agency for southern Ontario – said the recipients would not be identified because of privacy concerns.
But after Postmedia reported on the secrecy, and NDP MPs attacked the government on Thursday, Gary Goodyear, the minister for FedDev, told the agency to make the loans public.

“The minister has instructed the agency to disclose every single recipient on their web site,” said Michele-Jamali Paquette, Goodyear’s director of communications, late Thursday.

The program – the Southern Ontario Fund for Investment in Innovation – provides loans of up to $500,000 to provide “highly-targeted support to innovative small- and medium-sized enterprises.”

Last week, a spokeswoman for FedDev told Postmedia the loans would not be made public by the agency, and the community futures networks said they were not sure if they would make them public because of privacy concerns.

In the House of Commons on Thursday, NDP MPs Alexandre Boulerice and Charlie Angus both asked about the program, accusing the government of making “sweetheart deals” from a “Conservative pork fund.”
Goodyear defended the program, pointing to the track record of the community futures development corporations which handle the money, and stating that Angus has “no evidence of any wrongdoing whatsoever.”

After Question Period, officials from FedDev held a conference call with the groups in question, and the groups agreed to recommend to their boards that all loans be disclosed publicly.

Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Stephen Maher