Privatization Roulette
I was pretty excited to hear that we’re going to privatize some government crown corporations.
When was the last time we did that in Canada? How refreshing, compared to the American tendency these days to nationalize stuff (but only if they are bleeding money).
What kills me about the privatization debate is the “timing” issue everybody always brings up.
And nobody brings up timing to “promote” privatization, only to stop it.
- If a government-owned corporation is losing money, then it’s bad timing to sell it. Who wants to buy something that’s losing money?
- If a government-owned corporation is making money, then it’s bad timing to sell it – it’s helping Government revenues, not hindering them.
- If it’s breaking even, it’s off the radar completely – nobody’s complaining about it, so let’s leave it be.
Either privatization is a good economic idea, or it’s not. And if it is a good idea, then it should be generally pursued for it’s inherent benefits, not selectively, ineffectually, or half-heartedly (see BC Ferries), because nobody wants to rock the boat.
This doesn’t mean I favour a fire sale – just implementing a preparation plan, and guiding an orderly process.
Think about the privatization of Air Canada and Petro-Canada. Regardless of your opinion on these organizations in the past or present, you’ll have to admit their privatizations were the correct policy, economically beneficial, a net positive for government revenues, and not a fire sale.
I found great irony in the fact that the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is buying the company that runs the UK National Lottery. Let’s think about this for a minute. The pension plan for public school teachers in Ontario is buying a privatized lottery operator in another country.
And Maclean’s features an article this week (in their print edition) about how keen the Conservative government is to NOT privatize Canada Post.
I can’t wait to see what it is we WILL privatize.
AECL is a great start, but there’s oh so much more!
How about the airports? Our pension plans keep buying these up all over the rest of the world.
How about the CBC? OK, maybe there’s something not worth buying.
How about the Royal Canadian Mint? They can spend somebody else’s money finding lost gold that isn’t lost.
If not, why not? Is it bad timing?
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