Businesses which stop failing until the latest injection is used up, then continue on their way to oblivion or until another injection of our money reactivates the cycle again. The often used reason for these corporate welfare schemes is that they create jobs, or prevent job losses. Another reason for government grants is that a company may be enticed to build in an area where its own research and common sense would tell it not to. If you analyze the list of grants made to companies, by the provinces or the federal government, you invariably find the same names coming up again and again. Some had been to the trough over ten times in seven years.
Similar percentages appear in the other Atlantic provinces.
Of course the defenders of corporate welfare will point to the success stories, and there are a few, as supporting evidence for their continuing use of your tax dollars. If you give money away often enough it is likely that there will be some successes, even governments can't mess things up all the time. The question which won't get asked, or answered, is why should taxpayers' money be poured into any business at a time when we are cutting healthcare and plunging deeper into debt. There are a number of reasons why it is bad business for governments to use taxpayers' money to subsidize businesses and space will not allow complete enumeration. The most pernicious effect of a subsidy is to create an atmosphere where the recipients no longer have an incentive to increase their efficiency.