Other than Covid 19, inflation, the collapse of Hong Kong as a free society, and a continuing bull stock market, the last two years has also been a time of space “development. We have also seen two companies offer space tourism, the development of the largest rocket...
Crown Corporations
Crown Utilities’ Unfair Advantages Reduce Competition, Innovation
Largely unique among state-owned enterprises, ‘SEOs’, worldwide, Canadian Crown corporations have two key advantages over current and future private sector competitors: non-taxable status and access to low-cost public sector borrowing rates. Other implicit edges...
Backgrounder – A Crown Corporation’s Failure to Safeguard Assets: National Capital Commission
The National Capital Commission (NCC) is a Crown corporation owned by the Canadian government. The NCC owns and manages over 10 percent of the lands in the National Capital Region. Moreover, the corporation owns and manages several properties, including Canada’s six...
Crown Corporations Can Evade Disaster If They Are Sold Off
The recent unhappy news that Canadian taxpayers will soon be at least partially bailing out the government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the owners of Nalcor, which is completing the massively over-budget and behind-schedule Muskrat Falls power plant, may be the least...
Featured News
Canada in 2073—Will There Be One?
“Ahead, Thar Be Dragons.” The world of 2023 is a scary place. One major war is raging, with others probably on the way. The Pax Americana that has given us freedom of the seas and allowed global trade to flourish might be breaking down. International piracy,...
World Cries out for Canadian LNG, “No Business Case” Feds have Totally Failed Us
Today, Canada’s natural gas sector is seeing its decade of darkness due to federal policy. And it’s not because the opportunity wasn’t there. It was because our government allowed its ideology, and that of its anti-oil and gas friends (also known as protestors) to...
A Valuation of Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation
Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation, or NLC, is the monopoly Crown corporation which controls and retails all beverage alcohol in that province, aside from restaurants and bars, to which it wholesales. Using an intrinsic value method, and discounting to the...
Airbus A380: Death of the “Plane Born to Die”
Airbus’ cancellation (February 14) of the four engine, wide-body A380 jumbo jet ends the troubled life of a plane that always was too big and out of sync with changing market realities. Little more than 11 years after its October 2007 maiden commercial flight by...
Hot Times in the Frozen North – A Valuation of Qulliq Energy Corporation of Canada
Qulliq Energy Corporation, ‘QE’, is the electric power utility for Nunavut Territory in northeastern Arctic Canada. It could be worth as much as $255M were it divested; or, it could be worth less if its expensive diesel-fuelled power generation business experiences...
Money, Please, Indefinitely – A Valuation of Manitoba Public Insurance
Manitoba Public Insurance, ‘MPI’, is the provincial government-owned motor vehicle insurance company in Manitoba. It could be worth as much as $3.24B were it divested; or, it could be worthless, as its chronic loss-making and cash burn make it unattractive. As a...
Booze, Cannabis, and Beyond – A Valuation of BC Liquor Distribution Branch
Using an intrinsic value method, and discounting to the present, British Columbia Liquor Distribution Branch’s (BCLDB) projected future free cash flows, as the company is today, but taxed at statutory rates, the range of estimates is $12.13B to $84.91B, with a tighter...
Liquid and Rich, for Now – A Valuation of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario
Using an intrinsic value method, and discounting to the present, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario’s, ‘LCBO’s’ projected future free cash flows, as the company is today, but taxed at statutory rates, the range of estimates is $12.13B to $84.91B, with a tighter range...
Marine Atlantic Better Suited for Private Investors
One of the biggest risks to taxpayers with Crown corporations is their dependence on government subsidy; and how vulnerable they are if such subsidies were ever to be reduced. Marine Atlantic Inc. monopolizes the market for passenger water transportation on the east...
Mr. Postman, Look & See, Is There a Letter for Thee?
Changes in trends occasioned by digitization has had some adverse financial effects on Canada Post Corporation (CPC). Particularly, there is a shift in demand for traditional mail leading to a decline in mail volumes. Parcel volumes, however, are increasing owing to...
Always Building, Payoff Deferred – A Valuation of Yukon Energy Corporation
Yukon Energy Corporation (YEC) is a sprawling generator and distributor of electric power to customers in Yukon Territory. It could be worth as much as $212M were it divested, making the assumption that its chronic heavy capital investment program will end soon. As a...