Sending money to the Big Three — why?

Something does not add up. I have to cheer on the NDP again in Ontario for this one:

The New Democratic Party has released documents it obtained through a Freedom of Information request to Pupatello’s economic development and trade ministry.
The documents suggest GM has so far been given about half of the $500 million that was to create at least 900 jobs.
The documents obtained by the NDP say Ford was to retain 4,000 jobs and Chrysler 5,200.
Both have cut hundreds of jobs.

I do not know about you guys but corporate welfare makes me sick. It eliminates any moral divide between the politics of socialists and non-socialists. None of this auto-sector welfare is really to my advantage either. I drive a cheap old foreign soapbox and the next car I buy will probably be the same!
Now, unlike the NDP, I say to hell with the Canadian Auto Workers and let the auto industry sink or swim on its own merits. It is clearly sinking.

Here is a suggestion: take all of the $500 million dollars and just send the auto workers a welfare cheque. Let them find a different job. Oh, but wait — that is not what the Canadian Auto Workers want. They want their same high paid jobs at the expense of the tax-payer. Last month, we got a taste of that laziness:

However, both Liberals and Conservative federal governments have ignored calls from the CAW – Canada’s largest private-sector union – for trade barriers on imports from Asian countries unless they open their markets
“I want to challenge our Canadian government to get up off their asses and start to give some attention to our declining auto industry, give attention to our declining manufacturing centre throughout this country,” Buckley said Tuesday.
“Our government continues to turn their backs on auto workers in this country, continues to turn their backs on people who rely on good paying manufacturing jobs.”

Those may certainly be “good paying” jobs no doubt but, sorry, they are not “good” jobs if they rely on trade barriers and denying consumer choice.

What is this nonsense?

McGuinty says it’s no secret the province is in talks with Italy’s Fiat, and is also in discussions with car makers in China, India and Germany about investing in Ontario.

Well, either Ontario is attractive to foreign manufacturers or it is not. What can McGuinty bring to the table of a business plan that no other person from Italy, China, India or Germany have? Oh, yeah, taxation! I guess the Ontario tax-payers will have to stay tuned for the rest of the story.

This has some of us singing The Blues too.

ADDENDUM:
More bureaucracy?

Taxpayers need an independent, non-partisan assessment of whether they’re getting good value for money from the $500-million OAIS program and similar subsidy programs aimed at other industries, totalling $1 billion more.
The best person to carry that out is provincial Auditor General Jim McCarter, either at McGuinty’s request, or on his own initiative.

No, tax-payers do not “need” anything, thank you very much.
I have a better suggestion: just let the consumers decide. I mean, what could be a better indicator of which companies “deserve” a subsidy than the companies that get the most customers? at which point a subsidy would not be needed. Wow! That almost sounds like magic! Funny how markets work, eh?