2023-07-11 04:00:00
In the field of culture (music, shows, books, television, cinema, variety shows, arts and crafts, dance, etc.) it is possible to know for whom the smallest dollar invested by the Government of Quebec is intended.
All you have to do is consult the annual management report of SODEC (Société de développement des entreprises culturelle) to trace the beneficiaries of government assistance.
Unfortunately, this is not the case for companies in other sectors of economic activity when government assistance comes through numerous private funds financed by the State.
In his article $1.5 billion of our money entrusted with eyes closed to the private sectormy colleague Sylvain Larocque puts his finger on a serious problem of lack of transparency within the CAQ government.
“Quebecers,” he wrote, “cannot know precisely where [est allé le quelque] $1.5 billion that the government has invested in funds over the past few years. This lack of transparency shocks governance experts.”
We are referring here to the private funds in which Pierre Fitzgibbon’s super ministry of Economy, Innovation and Energy has invested considerable sums, in particular through Investissement Québec and the Economic Development Fund. .
It is impossible to know from the private funds in question the names of some 1,000 or more beneficiary companies, as well as the amount they obtained in indirect government funding.
If the same financial assistance of $25,000 or more had been paid by the Ministry of the Economy, the name of the company would be revealed. But when this same government assistance comes through a private fund, the obligation to disclose the beneficiary falls!
The reason given by Investissement Québec for not disclosing the names of the beneficiaries of the private funds in which it has invested: “With regard to the list of companies in which these funds have invested and the amounts involved, it turns out that this information cannot be sent to you for reasons of confidentiality”, we replied to my colleague Larocque.
What is even more troubling is to see Fitzgibbon’s ministry refuse to make public the beneficiaries of the Quebec Business Transfer Fund, which fund is itself managed by Investissement-Québec. The reason? “In order to preserve the confidentiality of information on the financial situation of companies that have benefited from the FTEQ, such a list cannot be shared.”
We are talking here about a fund constituted as a limited partnership which has a capitalization of 50 million and whose partners are the Economic Development Fund of the Government of Quebec and the three tax-advantaged funds which owe their existence to government tax credits , namely the Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Fondaction CSN and Capital régional et coopération Desjardins.
THAT’S ENOUGH
With our billions in taxes and savings, we finance thousands of businesses every year in different forms of financial assistance: grants, forgivable loans, conventional loans, venture capital investments, etc.
This is done either directly by the government through the Ministry of the Economy, Investissement Québec, the Economic Development Fund, the Caisse de depot et placement. Or either indirectly through a panoply of private funds financed in part with our taxes, levies and savings.
I don’t understand why all this nice world of government finance doesn’t seem to object to making public the names of the companies in which they inject money, except when it comes to companies that receive aid government through private funds.
MR FITZGIBBON
From the height of his status as super minister of the caquiste, Pierre Fitzgibbon castigated the Journal on Twitter: “Government-backed funds have robust governance tools that make accountability to government, but also to all private investors. Either through lack of knowledge or bad faith, this kind of article insults the rigorous managers of these funds.
Mr. Fitzgibbon, who says rigor should also mean transparency. The rule should be the same for all businesses that receive government assistance through our taxes and savings.
With government assistance comes the obligation of transparency. Take it or leave it.
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