New Brunswick Liquor Corporation (NBL) is the monopoly Crown corporation which controls and retails all beverage alcohol in the province of New Brunswick. Using an intrinsic value method, and discounting to the present, NBL’s projected future free cash flows, as the...
Crown Corporations
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...
Featured News
Time to Stop Lockdowns, Vaccine Mandates and Crushing Our Charter of Rights
If one was to discuss the state of the world’s democracies in September of 2019, it would look entirely different than it does today in 2022. Three years ago, Canadians generally thought that: our democracy was relatively strong and citizens would defend their...
Propaganda Rules the World
One of the greatest books that explain how the world works is Propaganda by Edward Bernays. The man dubbed “the father of public relations” applied the psychological ideas of his uncle Sigmund Freud upon the masses, triggering their basic motivations to the benefit of...
Nationalism in the Skies: The square peg in a round world
Executive Summary The 1944 Chicago International Aviation Conference, known as the Chicago Conference, was convened to determine how best to deal with air transportation between countries. A multilateral or borderless trade was proposed by the United States (hereafter...
Nationalism in the Skies and the bête noire of the 21st century
Emirates CEO Tim Clark says the airline industry considers the Gulf giant its “bête noire” –the “monster of the Middle East.” With two-thirds of the world living within eight hours of its Dubai hub, it seems the whole world is now changing planes in the Middle East....
Frontier Centre releases Nationalism in the Skies: The square peg in a round world
Today the Frontier Centre for Public Policy issued Nationalism in the skies: the square peg in a round world, authored by Mary-Jane Bennett. Nationality in a global business like aviation has made little sense Convened in 1944 by U.S. president F.D. Roosevelt to...
Independent analysts join chorus of Hydro critics
Perhaps, and hopefully, the Selinger government and its captive utility, Manitoba Hydro, will listen to the latest voice in a growing chorus calling for a pause and a rethink of what Hydro euphemistically calls its "preferred" development plan. La Capra Associates, an...
Deregulate Taxis To Improve Mobility in Winter Cities
Few urban experiences are less pleasant than waiting for a taxi in the middle of a Canadian winter. When temperatures dip, demand soars. Ordinary citizens begin to hijack other peoples’ taxis to avoid intolerable waits. It’s every man, woman, and child for him, her,...
Cabbies, customers deserve better
Winnipeg's taxi business represents a textbook case of what economists call "regulatory capture" -- the Taxicab Board pays more attention to protecting cab owners' capital gains than the needs of their customers, who want more cabs, better service and lower prices. In...
Losing Canadian Travellers To American Airports
Five million Canadians cross the border each year to fly from U.S. airports and save hundreds of dollars on the cost of a single vacation. Travelling from a Canadian airport costs more in several ways, especially when you add up airport fees and taxes. The U.S. sees...
High-Speed Rail Not Best Use of Taxpayer Money on the Prairies
There is renewed discussion in Alberta about building a high-speed rail link between Calgary and Edmonton. The idea has been around in one form or another for more than 30 years, but experience elsewhere in the world suggests that a high-speed train on the Canadian...
Dispatches From the American Midwest
Canadian cities face a myriad of challenges. Aging infrastructure and worsening traffic are undermining mobility, with immense costs. The Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area alone loses $6 billion in productivity due to gridlock each year, which is expected to increase...