WOULD YOU WRITE OFF A 2.6 BILLION DOLLAR LOAN?

WOULD YOU WRITE OFF A 2.6 BILLION DOLLAR LOAN?

I think I am on the verge of quitting paying any more taxes to the Federal Government. I worked hard for my money and paid taxes on it faithfully all of my life and now I found out that the government has just thrown 2.6 billion dollars of our money away on a bad loan. The Liberal government has quietly written off a $2.6-billion auto-sector loan that was cobbled together to save Chrysler during the 2009 global economic meltdown. The write-off, among the largest ever for a taxpayer-funded bailout, is buried in a volume of the 2018 Public Accounts of Canada, tabled recently in Parliament.

The reference contains no explanation for the write-off, identifying neither the business that received the loan nor the sector of the economy. Investigators have confirmed that the money was lent on March 30, 2009, to Chrysler LLC by the federal government – a loan that grew with interest over the following nine years.

"After exhausting all potential avenues for recovery, a $1.125 billion US principal plus accrued interest write-off in respect of 'Old Chrysler' occurred in March," said John Babcock of Global Affairs Canada, the department responsible.

At the time of the 2009 auto-sector bailouts in Canada and the United States, Chrysler was split in two: an "Old Chrysler" that went into bankruptcy and a "New Chrysler" that became viable and remains in operation today. Now called Fiat Chrysler, the international firm reported net profits of $4.3 billion US for 2017.

I really don’t care that “Old Chrysler” went into bankruptcy, the “New Chrysler” which was born from the ashes of the original company, like a Phoenix, still has a moral and ethical responsibility to repay the loan. New Chrysler would not exist today if their parent company had not been granted the loan. Given that they make a tidy $4.3 billion profit last year speaks of their good health and thus their ability to work to repay their original loan over time. 

This news story quietly buried and hidden from the hard working, plodding taxpayers of this country needs to be addressed. I question how hard the Canadian government “worked” to recover the loan and interest. I am sure they simply danced around the legal wording of the original loan contracts and circumvented the repayment with legal and technical tap dancing. And if we bury the writing off of the loan deep enough in bureaucratic documents no one will ever really know. 

I also wonder how many of the individuals who were involved in this fiasco are driving new Chrysler products that they didn’t really pay for? Perhaps it is time to pay a visit to Luigi and Guido over at the pizza joint and see if they might be convinced to attempt to collect on the loan. I understand they are very skilled at such ventures!