Trudeau launches plan to sell off Canada's airports

[Rwede]

Ottawa hires consultants to advise on airport sell-offs


Secretive project examines 5 options to generate billions of dollars from 8 biggest sites

By Dean Beeby, CBC News Posted: Jul 19, 2017 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Jul 19, 2017 5:39 AM ET


The Liberal government is still actively considering the sale of federal airports, including Toronto's Pearson International, which has been valued at up to $6 billion.

A secretive project to generate billions of dollars from the sale of major Canadian airports is pushing ahead with the hiring of consultant firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

The firm is to "act as a commercial adviser assisting with additional analytical work with respect to advancing a new governance framework for one or more Canadian airports."

A Crown corporation acting for the federal Finance Department, the Canada Development Investment Corp. or CDEV, signed the open-ended, per-diem deal with PwC and has retained outside legal advisers to help with any sales.

The PwC contract, never announced, is referred to in a Finance Canada briefing note from February that was obtained by CBC News under the Access to Information Act. A spokesman for CDEV, Zoltan Ambrus, confirmed that the consultants remain under contract to advise on any airport deals.

"CDEV did engage PwC earlier this year to provide supplemental advice on airports, yes," he said in an email. "Yes, PwC is still providing advice."

The four-person PwC team includes Michael Burns, an international aviation specialist based in London, and Sandra Pupatello, a former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister and now a Toronto-based strategic adviser with the firm.

The new contract follows a report delivered last fall by Credit Suisse Canada on how Ottawa might gain billion-dollar windfalls through the sale of its interests in Canada's Big Eight airports and 18 smaller airports. The eight are in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Halifax.


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'Like selling the furniture'

This week, the president and CEO of the Vancouver Airport Authority spoke out against any sale of federal airport assets, saying prices for airlines and passengers would only increase as for-profit entities seek to make back their investments.

Craig Richmond told an aviation industry publication that he understood the attraction of a one-time big profit for Ottawa, but "that's like selling the furniture in your house to cover your credit card debts."

Air Canada president and CEO Calin Rovinescu has also warned about the price impact on passengers and airlines if Ottawa sold its big airports.

Richmond estimates the Vancouver airport alone could fetch between $4 billion and $5 billion in an auction.

Airport authorities in Vancouver, Calgary and Ottawa have joined forces to oppose any sale and are trying to stir public opinion. Calin Rovinescu, president and CEO of Air Canada, has also spoken against the measure, warning of inevitable price increases.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/airport ... -1.4210703

[maryjane48]

whats the diff between selling bc rail and airports. most cons i know talk about govt getting 9ut of running companies lol . you know that freemarket idea . looks now like some rightwingers are closet communists ?

[frazdog]

Great news - just imagine the savings from the bloated govt bureaucracy that currently overseas airports. Get private business to innovate, upgrade our airports. Same is being planned in the US. *removed*

[Catsumi]

Funds from the sell off may be ear marked for another bloated payout or two as per the Omar surprise!

Be prepared to be outraged. Again.

[GenesisGT]

People should first realize what the gov't is intending on selling before making comments like

Great news - just imagine the savings from the bloated govt bureaucracy that currently overseas airports. Get private business to innovate, upgrade our airports.

Please name the airports that are operated by the Federal Gov't. aaaaahhhh Penticton, because of the different land claims associated with it, and some northern airports.

All the Liberals want to do is sell the land the airport sits on. Nothing more nothing less. This will not change the size of the federal government, they will still regulate the airports in the same manner they do today.

And if anyone thinks there would not be a hundred lawsuits against the gov't by groups saying the land is theirs, I have a bridge to sell you. It will be tied up in the courts for years and years.

This is nothing but a desperate move by a gov't that is spending and spending, increasing the deficit by amounts never before seen. Nothing more, nothing less.

Before selling off the farm (airport) the gov't should be managing their spending appropriately.