Crown corporations are established for a multitude of political
and public policy reasons. Most, ostensibly, fill market gaps in services and
activities “ignored by for-profit private organizations” and therefore deemed
the responsibility of government.
A Paper by Philippe Bergevin on the website of the C.D. Howe
Institute (from which the quote above was drawn) examines
risks posed by the Crown Corporation model. It suggests that whether Crown
corporations are “relevant” or if they serve only to “complement or displace
private activity”, their policies should be limited in ways “to more clearly
align them with the institutions’ core mandates and the defensible features of
their economic rationales”.
