To listen to the promoters, the Vancouver to Seattle and Portland high-speed rail proposal may look like a great idea. For many, high-speed rail is a panacea that promises to solve all of our transportation and environmental problems. It behooves governments and...
Nalcor is the electric power generating holding company supplying the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, ‘NL’. It is also the parent company of Newfoundland & Labrador Hydro, ‘NLH’, the actual utility that distributes and sells electric power to households,...
SaskPower is the electric power generating holding company and retail utility supplying the province of Saskatchewan. It also buys power from independent suppliers within the province. Unlike some of its Crown utility peers in Canada, it is not in bad financial...
For now, Ottawa’s plan to sell Canada’s airports appears to have been shelved. That’s too bad. Privatizing Toronto’s Pearson International Airport could help pay for a needed rail link to the suburbs and surrounding cities, and make the airport more competitive...
In this essay, I explain that young people should come to university to be educated, and not to become credentialed; the public should support universities because universities educate young people, not because they produce credentialled workers. Why should a...
During the whole of recorded history, the empire has been the most constant and common form of political organization. A basic, self-evident feature of all empire-building has been the successful occupation of the lands of the local, Indigenous inhabitants by outside...
In recent weeks, the Brad Wall government in Saskatchewan has advanced Bill 40, which would allow for the sale of up to 49% of any Crown corporation presently owned by Regina. While there has been predictable criticism and opposition from those who believe that...
The Frontier Centre for Public Policy today released a study about the privatization of the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (PCS). The report was co-authored by Dr. Mark Moore and Dr. Aidan Vining, both at the Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, BC....
The Frontier Centre for Public Policy today released a study by Mary-Jane Bennett, a Senior Fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. As the Crow Flies: Transportation Policy in Saskatchewan and the Crow’s Nest Pass Agreement studies the Crow rate, one of the...
Peter Holle January 30, 2017 In November, CBC proposed to withdraw from advertising in exchange for increased government funding. This is a significant move for the corporation because the broadcast-television advertising market, once lucrative, is fragmenting as...
Public transportation is an important contributor to urban mobility, particularly in Canada’s largest metropolitan areas. Despite the fact that most residents view public transportation as a necessity, there is a tendency to think of it as more of a social welfare...
Better engineered cars along with the adoption of seat belts and other road safety measures and legislation have contributed to a 58% decline in road fatalities in Canada between 1970 and 2009. The fatality rate is now so low that almost twice as many Canadians die...
Support for public transportation has grown significantly over the past decade in North America. Major transit expansions were key issues in the recent Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg elections, and ambitious plans were green lighted by voters in each of those...
Today the Frontier Centre for Public Policy released an independent valuation of SaskEnergy, Saskatchewan’s provincial Crown natural gas distributor. The report authored by financial analyst Ian Madsen estimated the potential market value at an average of $1.164...
This analysis arrives at approximations of the value of SaskEnergy, a provincial Crown corporation owned by the government and thus the citizens and taxpayers, of the province of Saskatchewan. These valuation ranges could be useful in determining the future ownership...