Nice in theory, something else in practice
Work in Progress, By Ivan Morgan
While reading the Auditor Generals (AG) scathing report on Newfoundland and Labrador Housing (Housing) a thought occurred to me: Crown corporations are for the most part useless.
When I was young, I thought Crown corporations were the way to go, corporations that worked for us, not for private shareholders and the bottom line. Crown corporations put people first. You and I were the shareholders, not some heartless capitalists. Great idea! When I was young, I had high hopes. I still do but I also have eyes. Crown corporations don’t work.
My case?
We started a Crown corporation called Nalcor to manage all our energy resources and thanks to them we now owe $13.5 billion and counting on an 824-megawatt hydro plant that was supposed to cost $7.5 billion. Turns out it still doesn’t work properly, and we probably didn’t need it anyway. Nalcor was also responsible for DarkNL – plunging the province into darkness during the coldest part of the winter of 2014. I could go on but that’s enough to make my point.
Now we see Newfoundland and Labrador Housing, another Crown corporation, that the Auditor General points out has failed its mandate abysmally. With a budget of $149.2 million of which you and I pay most of, and a staff of 327 people, the AG notes they have really dropped the ball. I could go on but the media has been reporting the numbers. They are depressing.
You don’t need to read the AG’s report to know Housing has failed. There’s a growing housing crisis in this province. I talk to people who use the food bank where I volunteer, and they tell me of housing nightmares: of years long wait lists forcing them to rent from unscrupulous landlords charging $1,000 or more for a room in what are often nightmarish conditions, of staying in abusive relationships as they have nowhere to go, of looking for months and years for a place to live.
This is not just a failure of policy. People are suffering because of this. Why are we paying all this money to this Crown corporation to not do its job? As a shareholder I want to know.
I see a situation where our tax dollars pay millions to people who do not help house people who need housing, and instead our income support tax money goes to predatory landlords who gouge the people we are not helping. My e-mail is below, e-mail me or write a letter to our editor pointing out where I am wrong.
There are lots of other Crown corporations that aren’t working well either, but the AG hasn’t reviewed them yet.
Federally we have Canada Post, who I just found out are not bringing me any more mail. That “self-sustaining” Crown corporation cost us $1 billion last year. Maybe they can break even if they don’t provide the services we expect. Folks my age can remember when Air Canada was a Crown corporation. That was not a positive experience. The CBC? Don’t even get me started.
The irony is there is one provincial Crown corporation many businesses despise and demand be privatized immediately – the Newfoundland Liquor Corporation (NLC). Many people have lectured me on how inefficient and frustrating it is. That may be, but last year they paid us all a $210 million dividend. No one is clamouring to privatize Housing, but the liquor store? Even a Crown corporation can make a profit selling booze and dope. The business community wants a slice of that $210 million, which I suspect, despite promises they may make, we would never see. As a shareholder I am okay with that dividend.
Crown corporations make sense in theory. However, there is more than enough practical evidence to show they don’t work. Crown corporations were created to protect us from greedy capitalism. I now know there are many forms of greed.
I have no answers. I hope bright young people will step forward with those answers.
Is there any good news in this? The Office of the Auditor General appears to be working just fine.
Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com