Privatizing Canadian government land and real estate: Railroads, reconciliation, and rip-offs

Heather Whiteside

Land Use Policy, 2020, vol. 99, issue C

Abstract: This paper explores three questions on public land and real estate privatization in Canada: which state institutions are involved, what logics guide these privatizations, and what are the implications of how privatization manifests? Answers are interwoven through three sections. The first section summarizes the historical context and institutional reconfiguration of public land and real estate management systems in capitalist-colonial Canada, examining the public sector institutions and ideas involved: the logics and procedures of surplus disposal (Canada Lands) and sale and leaseback (Public Works). The second section explores the implications of surplus land sales through snapshots highlighting some of its consequences: urban development in Toronto through the privatization of once-public railway land, and what the privatization of military land means for Indigenous reconciliation (and capitalist commercialization) in Vancouver. The third section delves deeper into how privatization manifests by exposing several scandals in the sale and leaseback of government buildings managed by Public Works, with implications revealed through the activities of its central private sector agent, the shadowy family-run private trust Larco Investments Ltd.

Keywords: Public land; Public real estate; Privatization; Commercialization; Canada (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:99:y:2020:i:c:s026483771932160x

DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104821

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