Development agencies welcome new ministers with defence of their budgets
Global News
Bureaucrats who run federal economic development agencies seem keen to defend their ability to hand out more than $1.3 billion a year to small and medium-sized businesses.
The first document Central Nova MP Sean Fraser received after being sworn in as the minister responsible for Atlantic Canada’s regional economic development agency was a briefing binder, prepared by the agency’s bureaucrats, that boasted about its central role in sustaining the region’s economy, mostly by handing out more than $300 million in grants and loans.
The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) told Fraser that it boosted revenue and employment at whatever firm received an ACOA interest-free loan. All of the other six federal regional development agencies (RDA) made the same claim in briefing binders provided to their new ministers after the May swearing-in ceremony.
Combined, the seven RDAs provided $1.9 billion in grants and contributions in 2023-2024 to 70,000 businesses and non-profits across the country.
The impossible-to-ignore context of the information in the briefing binders provided to Fraser and the other six ministers in charge of a RDA was that all those handouts to businesses was money well spent and that their budgets ought to be spared from the order by Prime Minister Mark Carney to find across-the-board government savings.
“Our programs and services catalyze economic growth in the region,” each agency wrote to their new minister, using one of Carney’s favourite and most-used words — “catalyze” — three or four times in each minister’s briefing binder.
The government has been slowly releasing the briefing binders provided to every minister after their post-election swearing-in ceremony through the Open Government data portal. Binders for the RDA ministers were posted within the last week or so.
ACOA (usually pronounced Ah-koah) serves the four Atlantic provinces and there is one RDA each for the three northern territories, for Quebec, for southern Ontario, for northern Ontario, and for B.C. Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta are served by Prairies Economic Development Canada or “PrairiesCan.”
Overall, RDA spending and projected spending has gone down since 2023-24 as certain one-time programs expired. For the most recent fiscal year, which ended March 31, the estimated budget for grants and interest-free loans distributed by RDAs came to to $1.4 billion. Spending for the current fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2026 is projected at $1.3 billion.
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