Crown corporation

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In the Commonwealth Realms, a Crown corporation is a state-controlled company or enterprise. This article mainly deals with Canadian Crown corporations since the term is most widely used in Canada. Equivalent names in other jurisdictions include Government trading enterprises, Government-owned corporations and State-owned enterprises.

1 Canadian Crown Corporations
2 See also

[edit] Canadian Crown Corporations

Crown corporations, in theory, are owned by the Canadian Sovereign, however, this is based on the legal technicality that the Crown, as an institution, owns all the property of government; these corporations do not belong to the Queen personally, but to the governments of the respective jurisdictions over which she reigns. Crown corporations operate on a day-to-day basis at arm's length from the government; direct control by government is exerted only over the corporation's budget and the appointment of its chairperson and directors.

In Canada, Crown corporations are operated both by provincial governments (the Crown-in-Right-of-Ontario, for example) and the federal government (the Crown-in-Right-of-Canada), as a means to pursue economic, social and political objectives. Canadian Crown corporations are involved in everything from the distribution, use, and price of certain goods and services, to energy development, resource extraction, public transportation, cultural promotion, and property management. They are also frequently used to give governments access to financial markets to provide financing for development and capital projects.

Two of the most significant Canadian Crown corporations of the 20th century were the Canadian National Railways and Air Canada. Both were privatized and are now publicly traded corporations. Other significant Crown corporations include the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, VIA Rail, and Marine Atlantic.

The importance of Crown corporations in the economy has declined in recent years, as a number of significant privatizations have occurred, particularly at the federal level. The heyday of government use of Crown corporations was the period from 1918 (Canadian National Railway being the first) through to 1981 (with Canada Post turned into a Crown Corporation).