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06/27/2006: "Government investment?"

Yesterday we got a flyer in the mailbox from the Crown Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan. This is a government formed and sponsored holding company for the government owned and operated companies. The flyer is titled "Summary Annual Report 2005 & Utility Bundle Report 2005" and trumpets how good they've been doing at managing the crowns and investments being made by the government.

My first though, of course, was that all this good news must mean they're gearing up for an election. Why else would they decide to produce and distribute this mostly meaningless piece of literature about an government organization that has effectively no direct impact on the lives of anybody but its employees. It really just serves as middle management between the government and the corporations themselves. As such, it (the flyer) looks like just more propaganda.

My second thought was a little more serious. What business does the government have making investments with my money? If I had the taxes back that they paid into these corporations (currently and in the past) would I have made the same decisions? Why is the government competing with the business community it's also says its supposedly trying to build up?

Of course, the current government won the last election on a classic campaigh of FUD building with the same crown corporations as the sacred cow nobody should touch. Obviously there is some political support for the current scheme.

All the same, I have to wonder. If these companies were doing so well, would they not also do well with people's voluntary money instead of their coerced money (aka taxes)?