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Mark McQueen - I have gone back on forth on the major subsidy's to Volkswagen. Insiders say it is performance based. Who knows? You said it and know what you are talking about - "For Canada’s innovation entrepreneurs, they’ll be the first to tell you that the lack of sufficient private growth capital, whether it be equity or debt, is often the only thing that undermines their ability to create hundreds of new, high-paying jobs." In my Heart of Hearts - I believe that creating an environment for Canadians to manufacture "high valued" added products and services will bring us back to the living and growing.

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The EU has done more research on effective Government funding and outcomes than Canada will ever do. Research across dozens of countries and hundreds of programs. The research proves overwhelmingly that the single most effective mechanism is sector wide funding channeled through clusters.

Canada doesn’t do this (the super clusters don’t follow the EU model) instead the vast majority of Canadian funding programs target single companies.

EU *may* do some funding for batteries. It won’t be single company like Canada but will be sector wide (more effective) and only reluctantly triggered because US and Canada have tilted the playing field with funding approaches that EU knows is ineffective.

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Thanks for stopping by. Which specific EU research papers would you recommend that summarize what is working best for the region vis-a-vis Gov't funding strategies?

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Great article Mark. Reasonable demolition of the decision, in my opinion, without being polemical. Even if the performance guardrails Mark mentioned are in place, they'll be fudged by either the technocrats or the politicians. A big bet by a proven profligate government is just too risky.

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