Months late, Manitoba Hydro has finally reported its poor financial results for 2019-20 and the first quarter of the current year. It also has disclosed that it has sold its long-standing 40% stake in electrical engineering consultancy Teshmont (to global engineering...
WINNIPEG, MB, December - The Frontier Centre for Public Policy has just released Continually Bleeding Cash: A Valuation & Strategic Appraisal of the CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation by Ian Madsen, a senior policy analyst with the Frontier Centre. This...
Name something you can find only in Canada. If we eliminate easy answers such as wildlife oddities, three-down football and maple-flavoured pastries and focus instead on major transportation infrastructure hubs, there’s just one correct response: the unique and...
Taxpayers Will Benefit If YHZ Is Privatized - Selling off all, or part of, Halifax’s International Airport YHZ is the airport serving the metropolitan Halifax-Dartmouth, Nova Scotia that is ultimately managed and owned by the federal government. The airport has...
This past weekend, we learned of the tragic and unexpected passing of Pastor Leon Fontaine at 59 years of age. Leon was a gifted leader playing many roles both nationally and internationally. He was, with his wife Sally, the senior Pastors at Springs Church with...
Testimony before the Public Order Emergency Commission reveals the case for government invoking the Emergencies Act is either weak or very weak. The Prime Minister was, in fact, opposed to members of his cabinet or senior public health officials meeting with protest...
Currently, Export Development Corporation (EDC) is unable to convert its reported profits into cash, posing an increasing risk to Canadian taxpayers. Moreover, EDC has been funding ventures that are normally considered too risky for commercial banks to handle. EDC is...
The Frontier Centre for Public Policy has just released Extreme Dearth of Cash Flow: A Valuation of Export Development Canada by Ian Madsen, a senior policy analyst with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. The paper conducts an in depth valuation of the alternative...
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...
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...
Every member of the Manitoba Hydro Board, with the exception of Conservative MLA Cliff Graydon, resigned on March 21, 2018 over a dispute with Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister. According to Pallister the board resigned because the province won’t agree to a $67.5...
Damage from rail car accidents far exceed pipeline leaks, as tanker trains are routed through cities and towns, exposing millions of Canadians to safety hazards. Worst of all was the 2013 derailment that killed 47 people in Lac-Megantic Quebec.
Anyone who says electric cars will save the world is dreaming. The adoption of electric cars over the next 20 years will barely shave a single percent from the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, the batteries that power these cars rely on a nightmarish swath...
The preliminary report forecasts that it will take $30 billion to $55 billion to complete. Experience suggests costs would likely be much higher. There are two principal problems. The first is that high-speed rail routinely costs much more than planned. The second is...