National Post (National Edition)
Public sector investing has history
Canada is officially in the pipeline business. Here, the Post’s Stuart Thomson runs down a few examples of previous governments either buying, heavily investing in or backstopping a troubled project.
HIBERNIA OIL PLATFORM
In the face of soaring costs and a big backer getting cold feet, the Hibernia oil platform looked doomed in the 1990s. By that time, the Canadian government had already offered $2.7 billion in loan guarantees and grants but, in 1993, it took a deeper plunge into the oil field off the east cost of Newfoundland by taking an 8.5 per cent stake in the project. That, along with some other partners boosting their stake in the deal, saved the project from collapse. The government still owns its stake and last year raked in about $75 million in profit.
MUSKRAT FALLS HYDRO DAM
When former prime minister Stephen Harper promised up to $6.3 billion in loan guarantees to backstop the Muskrat Falls hydro dam in 2012, the project was facing significant cost overruns. The price tag now stands at $12.7 billion, prompting the current Liberal government to step in with $2.9 billion in guaranteed financing. It might take some time before Ottawa recoups its costs, as Muskrat Falls remains years behind schedule. Even the current CEO of Nalcor Energy, the provincial Crown corporation building the dam, has called the project a “boondoggle” that “should never have been built.”
PACIFIC WESTERN AIRLINES
Alberta is no slouch when it comes to weird and wonderful diversification schemes. Perhaps the strangest of these came in 1974, when Peter Lougheed’s government purchased an airline for $37.3 million and ran it as a Crown corporation. Possibly because the government had a “no meddling” policy, the airline actually made a profit in each of the 10 years it was owned by Alberta, peaking at $18 million in 1981. Pacific Western Airlines soon merged with another airline to form Canadian Airlines — taken over by Air Canada in 2000.
SYNCRUDE OILSANDS MINE
Alberta’s oilsands industry is often touted as an example of private sector self-sufficiency. But when Atlantic Richfield Co. abandoned its 30 per cent stake in the Syncrude oilsands mine in 1974, it was the Ontario, Alberta and federal governments who stepped in to get the wildly over budget project completed. As far as public sector investments go, it may have been one of Alberta’s most successful: the province’s $236 million equity position was sold to Athabasca Oil Sands Investment Inc. in 1995 for $352 million. As of 2015 the project had generated more than $14 billion in federal and provincial taxes and royalties.
LLOYDMINSTER UPGRADER
The Lloydminster Upgrader, which left Alberta out hundreds of millions of dollars and Saskatchewan breaking even for the same project, is an example of how unpredictable these kind of deals can be. The upgrader was built in Lloydminster, the city that straddles the border between the provinces. Alberta paid $305 million for a 24 per cent interest and ponied up $400 million for capital costs in the upgrader. Alberta and the federal government sold their shares to the Saskatchewan government in 1994 for 7.5 cents on the dollar. Four years later, Saskatchewan sold the shares back to Husky for $310 million, recouping the province’s entire investment. The opposition in Alberta said the shares the province sold to Saskatchewan for $32 million would have been worth around $150 million had the government held onto them.
BOMBARDIER
Federal subsidies to airline company Bombardier Inc. are something of a tradition. Some observers estimate Bombardier has received $2.2 billion on corporate subsidies over the past 50 years, in various forms, and has received another $11 billion in Export Development Canada loans to Bombardier’s customers. Last year Ottawa announced $372 million in interest-free loans to Bombardier to complete production of its Global 7000 and Cseries jets. That followed another $1.68-billion investment from the Quebec government in 2015.