Better to develop trading relationships with tomorrow’s winners than to tie our fortunes to an economy that can pull us down.
Private carriers ‘crowded out’ of Canadian trade credit insurance market
A chief executive at a global trade credit insurance firm is calling for change after years of “unfair” market conditions in Canada.
Repeal the Act and privatize this Canadian SOE
In its submission to Ottawa’s 2018 Legislative Review of the Export Development Act, Probe International calls for a repeal of the Act and the privatization of Export Development Canada (EDC). Probe argues the federal government’s export-financing agency shares many of the same characteristics as China’s controversial state-owned enterprises (SOEs), characteristics that ensure market distortion and stunt private development.
Ottawa orders Export Development Canada to examine lending practices
Activists call the agency “essentially self-governing” in the areas of environment, human rights and anti-corruption.
How a federal agency helps finance some of the world’s most corrupt regimes
Export Development Canada has perfected the art of lending billions of taxpayer dollars to scandal-ridden foreign buyers. But its transparency could use some work. Patricia Adams of Probe International shares her experience with EDC “disclosure”.
Canada could be about to make corporate ‘crime’ less criminal — and more lucrative
Patricia Adams: There’s no evidence that deferred prosecution agreements enhance anything other than agency budgets.
Decriminalizing corporate corruption
Deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) make a mockery of the criminal justice system. Join Probe International as we get to the root of this problem at our final Grounds for Thought discussion night of the year: Tuesday, November 28 @8PM.
No DPAs
Read Probe International’s submission to the Government of Canada’s invitation to Canadians for their views on potential enhancements to the Integrity Regime and on considerations regarding the possible adoption of a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) regime in Canada. Probe International’s response: No DPAs. Learn why.
Bombardier nabbed $3.7B in subsidies, yet the mob demands we punish its executives
The current exec pay hooha is a timely reminder about the real scandal here: the willingness of politicians to hand over billions of dollars in subsidies to a few favoured companies. What is Bombardier really selling? Itself as a recipient for government funds. As for planes, “it is selling the making of planes, or more particularly conspicuous government support for the making of planes, or perhaps just the idea of making planes,” writes Andrew Coyne, tongue firmly in cheek, for the National Post.
The silent partner
The future looks good for Canadian arms manufacturers, says journalist Paul Christopher Webster in this in-depth look at the sale of Canadian-built light armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia — a sale approved by the Conservative government and supported by the Trudeau administration despite concerns the vehicles could be used against civilian populations.
Muskrat Falls becoming an over-budget burden on Newfoundland
The Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project in Labrador needed a federal guarantee to get off the ground, which in itself testifies to its iffy economics, writes Konrad Yakabuski for the Globe and Mail. Now, he says, Newfoundland’s shrinking population faces paying for Muskrat Falls in more ways than one.
Deterrence lost in plea deals
Deferred prosecution agreements that let companies pay fines for wrongdoing could backfire by encouraging repeat criminality. Probe International’s Patricia Adams for the National Post.
No winners in corporate shakedown
DPAs were virtually unheard of in business settings prior to 2004, but their growing popularity in the U.S. is now being felt in Canada with SNC-Lavalin lobbying the Liberal government to have its fate determined by a DPA, rather than the criminal trial the Harper government pursued.
OPIC should go next
Ex-Im is one of dozens of corporate welfare programs that should end. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), like Ex-Im, hurts domestic competitors, privileges big lenders and is also known to fund questionable projects. Reason.com reports.
Ottawa’s promised changes to federal integrity rules gives SNC Lavalin a boost
Things are looking less sour for graft-tainted engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, which received a boost Monday when an analyst upgraded his rating and price estimate for the company’s stock following changes to the federal government’s procurement policy, announced in last week’s budget.
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