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Talk to the Tories, and it’s “corporate welfare.” Quiz the New Democrats and it’s an opaque game of picking winners and losers that fails to keep track of promised jobs.

The experts both lament its necessity and suggest it’s “a race to the bottom.”

But where do these billions of dollars of public money go, and does it really translate to a better economy?

According to the “Report of the Expert Panel Examining Ontario’s Business Support Program,” too much of it goes to big businesses that don’t really need it at the expense of those who do. Though never previously released, it preceded, and in many ways predicted Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk’s 2015 report that found 80 per cent of all businesses receiving government support since 2010 were asked by the government to apply.

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-Establish explicit criteria for the launch and closure of business support programs.

-Ensure programs provide effective support to young companies.

-Conduct further research on the recipients and effects of its business support programs.

-Convene panels and provide them with data that will assist them in the judgment of the impact of programs on sectors, regions, and clusters

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The report concludes: “Ontario’s business support programs favour the largest and oldest companies, the companies least likely to be in need of support.”

Just in the last six months, from October to the end of March, the government has spent roughly $94 million on direct grants to businesses through the Jobs and Prosperity Fund and Southwestern Ontario Development Fund, according to National Post analysis. A large piece of that went to big, profitable companies: Ontario gave up to $15 million to Waterloo tech firm Sandvine, or 16 per cent of the direct business grants over that period. As Postmedia’s David Reevely revealed, Sandvine is doing so well it expects to pay out that same amount in dividends by the middle of next year.