The long-suffering citizens of Alberta recently learned that they are on the hook for yet more billions of dollars via an ill-advised “investment” in an oil pipeline that was veritably festooned with red flags prior to the injection of hard-earned and now lost...
The federal government is preparing a budget to be unleashed upon the public and the financial markets, sometime in March. Aside from being terrified at the prospect of a huge amount of debt being taken on, yet again, by our erstwhile servants on Parliament Hill,...
Divesting YXE will benefit taxpayers Saskatoon International Airport WINNIPEG, MB, March 6, 2021 - The Frontier Centre for Public Policy has just released Debt-Free, Few Capex Demands, Well Positioned to Soar: A Valuation & Strategic Appraisal of the Saskatoon...
Lack of diversification is an invitation to risk and disaster that nearly all investors are aware of. Very few of them, whether institutional, corporate, or individual, would put their total net worth into one sector. Yet, that is just what Alberta, Newfoundland and...
The choice we face is clear: a modest expansion of greenfield development or greater housing poverty For 18 years, I have been monitoring international housing affordability, as author or co-author of the Demographia Housing Affordability series. The latest...
The April 1982 Saskatchewan election proved to be a major turning point in the province's history. Over its nine years in office, the Devine government commenced and completed numerous policy initiatives in spite of considerable challenges including two recessions. ...
Ian Madsen, Senior Policy Analyst at FCPP, discusses how the inherent flaws in Crown corporations make it nearly inevitable that a debacle like Manitoba Hydro's Keeyask-Bipole III fiasco will happen, and how to resolve it - first by getting past denial. (~18 minutes)
There has long been a battle in public policy about government’s role in running enterprises. Strangely, that battle was not settled in the 1980’s and ‘90’s when many state-owned firms were ‘privatized’. The surprising fact: Canadian governments still own many Crown...
Export Development Corporation, ‘EDC’, a Crown lending corporation owned by the federal government, has found itself in controversy by virtue of providing funding to a mining company, Turquoise Hill. This mining firm utilized offshore entities to minimize taxes it...
Appeals to sentiment and other emotions will not make Manitoba Hydro financially viable. Manitobans cannot wish away the debacle that cost the utility, and all Manitobans, billions of dollars. The problem over a decade ago, and it will take decades to get out of the...
The Federal Government’s Crown Corporation, Export Development Corporation (EDC), is in a big problem because it invested in a mining company, Turquoise Hill. Unfortunately, Turquoise Hill transferred a considerable amount of money offshore to minimize the taxes it...
Manitoba Hydro’s Keeyask dam and Bipole III debacle — and the taxpayers’ probable assumption of much of its horrendous debt — were not inevitable, but Crown corporations have vulnerabilities that are inherent with being government-created and -controlled. Risk begins...
Keeping Sask Power and being compelled to throw in more billions of dollars to keep it viable, or having an additional 15,000 teachers, nurses, or paramedics? This is the choice Saskatchewan would have if this Crown asset were sold. There are two generally accepted...
Increasingly, Toronto Hydro Corporation poses an expensive risk to its customers and ratepayers, and indeed to all Toronto citizens. The century-old electricity distribution company’s aging equipment is breaking down, and the utility is having trouble keeping up with...
Many Canadians might be surprised to learn that the share price-to-free cash flow ratio cannot be used in conducting market-based valuations of utility companies (Crown owned or publicly traded). Nearly all the utilities in North America, and even some Brazilian...