Liberals seek to sell off crown corporations.

[Chuck U. Farlie]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...rticle1401807/

The cash-strapped Ontario government is looking into the sale of all or part of its collection of Crown corporations, including the provincial lottery company and the retail monopoly on liquor sales, to raise cash to close a $24.7-billion deficit this year.

What do you guys think?

Personally I have thought for many years that the LCBO should be privatized... but not left as basically a monopoly (other than the wine shacks in grocery stores and beer stores)... all alcohol sales should be privatized and competition should be allowed to exist.

I don't really have an opinion about the privatization of OLG or Hydro One... I suppose I don't mind if they are privatized as long as they don't allow monopolies to develop and rape us on necessities (like hydro). The last thing we need is a single company owning our hydro assets and raping us on power usage like the 407 does on private toll road usage.

For once the Liberal government is considering something that I, as a fiscal conservative, can be in favour of (although that doesn't mean I will ever vote liberal... not after the lies we have become accustomed to from them).

The government should not be in the business of gambling or selling booze... they should concentrate on providing us with the services we need like providing health care and education, keeping us safe, and managing our tax dollars efficiently - none of which they are doing well right now. Less government = less bureaucracy = more efficiency.

[thebutler]

Those 3 (Hydro One, OLG, LCBO) provide the Ontario government with around $3.5 billion per year.

Big earners, not sure if it makes sense to sell them. They need to think this through for the long run. What will the government do in the following years without that annual $3.5 billion infusion?

[Bandit Bill]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...rticle1401807/



What do you guys think?

Personally I have thought for many years that the LCBO should be privatized... but not left as basically a monopoly (other than the wine shacks in grocery stores and beer stores)... all alcohol sales should be privatized and competition should be allowed to exist.

I don't really have an opinion about the privatization of OLG or Hydro One... I suppose I don't mind if they are privatized as long as they don't allow monopolies to develop and rape us on necessities (like hydro). The last thing we need is a single company owning our hydro assets and raping us on power usage like the 407 does on private toll road usage.

For once the Liberal government is considering something that I, as a fiscal conservative, can be in favour of (although that doesn't mean I will ever vote liberal... not after the lies we have become accustomed to from them).

The government should not be in the business of gambling or selling booze... they should concentrate on providing us with the services we need like providing health care and education, keeping us safe, and managing our tax dollars efficiently - none of which they are doing well right now. Less government = less bureaucracy = more efficiency.

The problem as i see it - of the OLG and the LCBO, both are revenue generaters for the Government - whether for health care spending for the former, or through 'sin taxing' to general coffers for the latter.

We've been paying a 'debt recovery fee' on our hydro bills - who'll maintain the reactors at Darlington and Pickering - who'll make sure that the coal fired plants continue to be regulated for emissions, AND enforced as they should be?

I don't really trust the government - but i trust private business even less when it comes to our own best interests in these matters.

What happens when we are in the hole again - what gets sold next? Is there anything left to sell? Does that mean that we'll finally, REALLY, be taxed to death to meet the budget shortfalls of the Provincial healthcare system, while watching our Provincial hydro production being sold outside of province to the highest bidder?

What we need to get is a responsible and representative Government into power that'll manage the finances effectively, rather than the current one that continues to loot the till, long after all the $20's and $50's are gone.

[roadtoruin]

Selling off assets in a "economic downturn" to put it lightly is stupid in my opinion. Rack up enormous deficits robbing future generations of wealth and then fix it by selling off our collective assets ensuring we will no longer gain any more wealth from them. 407 is a perfect example, turned out to be worth more than 4 times what we sold it for.

down with mcgunty!

[Chuck U. Farlie]

Selling off assets in a "economic downturn" to put it lightly is stupid in my opinion. Rack up enormous deficits robbing future generations of wealth and then fix it by selling off our collective assets ensuring we will no longer gain any more wealth from them. 407 is a perfect example, turned out to be worth more than 4 times what we sold it for.

down with mcgunty!

True... as far as timing goes for selling off assets, this is the wrong time. I still think the gov't shouldn't be in the booze or gambling business, and they can still gain the sin tax revenue while not operating either (therefore lowering expeditures)... but sell them when the value is at a high, not a low.

[jforzag]

HMMM does everyone like the fact that the taxpayers payed to build the 407 then the government sells the rights to it for 99 years for how much.

I was a liberal supporter for 10 yrs now that has came to an end, between the hst as well as paying for cleaner water through your weekly paychecks, it is not a good idea.

Selling the LCBO is pure madness, why not just let us buy our booze at gas stations and corner stores, if they were to sell the lcbo the new owners would eventually cater to everyones needs and start selling everything else under the sun.

Sell Hydro One, So the tax payers built all of the power lines, all of the power plants, now let's sell it for a few billion dollars, in the meantime the new owners are gonna jack up the prices.

And Finally Selling OLGC, well how much will i have to pay for a share in this company, cause if she is no longer a governement run company, then were gonna have massive profits, and we can just forget about giving the profits to charities.

All three of the above Government Owned and Operated Organizations, Generate Millions if not close to Billions of dollars of Revenue and Profit Each and every day/ year as well as employe (X) amount of people.

The honest truth is the only way that our debts can and will be repayed is Simple, Don't Spend Money that you don't Have in the first place!, oh and as much as i hate to say it, but it sounds like our taxes are about to go up again. Which will in turn cause the Ontario Liberal's To lose ridings, and lose their majority government in the next elections.

[FiReSTaRT]

Kill the cow for the milk... Great strategy

[zeekat]

McGuinty has stated before that he would never privatize the LCBO or Ontario Hydro and now he's musing about it now that we're $25B+ in the hole. It says only one thing ... He has no f***** idea or plan on how to get Ontario's finances back on their feet so he's grasping at straws ... so let's sell Ontario Hydro so he can forge ahead with full day JK/SK on top of everything else.

Selling the OLG is kind of funny because its nothing more than voluntary taxation that maintains thousands more 'government' jobs while bringing in around $2B/yr. It's free taxation without pissing off voters.

[CruisnGrrl]

Having seen how the harris government sold off a bunch of stuff didn't exactly help us out..... ****.... we need a revolution

[zeekat]

.... we need a revolution

McGuinty hasn't banned or taxed that yet.

[silence]

In this world there is nothing that is certain except death and taxes.

[roadtoruin]

We should never forget that those assets really belong to US. It's not "the governments" to sell away to the highest bidder. WE are the government. There should be some serious hell raising if they start selling off crown corporations.

[HunGJaI]

The Government should sell off the damn TTC (BUT probably no one is willing to buy it anyways...)

Over funding and over paided workers and asking for more money...Toronto has set aside how much for the next operating budget to cover the TTC again for 2010?

[daught]

Might as well sell the healthcare while they are at it.

[BLUE_KAWI]

Welcome to the bankrupt state of Ontario with dictator McDalton. Even if we sold off all of our assets. It wouldn’t be even close enough to pay for the $25 billion deficit. Let’s not even talk about the debt.

Cut the government bloated payroll ASAP!

[rukus]

They need to think this through for the long run.

its the libs, they won't

[CruisnGrrl]

its the gvt, they won't

fixed

remember when the cons did the same thing? and there is no way anyone is voting ndp with their belief money grows on trees and their soccer mom agenda

[Kawi]

Libs Cons, they are all thieves. Cons introduced the GST and now Libs introduced the HST. They take ppls money and mismanage it. There is so much waste in the system. It doesn't make a diff whether they keep the crown corps or sell them. If they keep them they will run them into the ground eventually and if they sell them they will just eat through the money in no time.

[AdRath]

Booo McGuinty... Horray Beer!

[twinn]

Its a dumb move, I wonder though, if they sell of the assets what happens to the employees? Do they become privatised as well? What about their govt pensions?