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.
The hasty, defeatist and craven withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan in August has compelled the so-called “civilized” Western nations and their leaders to confront the failures and errors of the past 20 years, which resemble those of earlier conflicts....
Travel and work over the past two years have brought me to many different jurisdictions. What continues to strike me is the way the responses to COVID-19 have been varied, arbitrary and often draconian. I look back at Canada and see raging debates over mask mandates,...
The last decade has been a relatively quiet period in terms of privatization at both the federal and provincial levels. There are a number of reasons for this privatization hiatus. Certainly a major contributing factor, at least at the federal level, is that the low-hanging fruit has already been privatized.
In the late 1970s, inflation neared 20% and the ruling party still wanted to own the means of production. Enter the grocer's daughter. A movie producer once shared with me a maxim for making historical films: Faced with choosing between "drama" and "historical...
Government owned bus company Saskatchewan Transportation Co. is getting an operating grant of up to $9.2 million for 2012, about $300,000 more than the amount approved last year.
In this valuation of ATB, the Frontier Centre launches its new series to valuate Canada’s Crown Corporations.
Calgary based Pacific Western Transportation (PWT) is currently touring Manitoba to consult with the public and show off its fleet of buses as the company attempts to introduce new inter-city bus services to the province. They will be stopping in Winnipeg this Friday....
STC currently receives $9 million in operating subsidies, yet still has higher prices for bus transit between cities than in the rest of the country. In order to solve this, the government should become a purchaser, rather than provider of intercity bus transit.
Keeping transit fares as low as possible does not necessarily promote high ridership levels. The key to convincing people who can afford driving to instead take public transit is convenience, not lower prices. The best solution for reducing the automobile’s advantages over transit is to operate transit on a for-profit basis. Transit services must also be converted into transit commissions, which would coordinate and contract transit routes to competing private companies.
Funding public transit is one of the biggest problems facing cities today. Often the trouble is that a few high-cost, low-ridership routes drag down an entire system. That puts policymakers in a tough spot.
Given its current direction, Qantas as an airline brand will most probably disappear. Its likely future is as an owner and manager of franchised other branded airlines. The transition could happen with a comparative speed that may surprise. In fact, it's well...