Canadians pay the price for unnecessary Crown corporations
There has long been a public policy battle over government’s role in running enterprises. Strangely, that battle was not settled in the 1980s and ’90s when many state-owned firms were ‘privatized,’ since Canadian governments still own many Crown corporations.
Air Canada, Canadian National Railway, Petro-Canada (now part of Suncor), PotashCorp of Saskatchewan (now part of Nutrien), Alberta Energy (now part of Encana) and Cameco are among those privatized.
Analysis shows divested firms perform far better as private sector than when state-held. In general, nations with low state ownership (United States, South Korea, Australia) surpass more statist ones (France, Canada) in total and per capita economic growth.
Nevertheless, hundreds of Crown corporations remain, at national and provincial levels. Some are in a mediocre, zombie-like state (e.g. Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp., or CMHC, and Canada Post). Others are in serious financial distress (Manitoba Hydro, CBC).