Crown corporations have been created to provide important services in Canada - a large, sparsely populated country - usually because the private sector was unable or unwilling to provide such services. The
Bank of Canada, originally privately owned, became a Crown corporation in 1938. After the Second World War, federal crown corporations were created to provide loans and financial services to groups whose needs were not always met by private institutions, such as farmers (
Farm Credit Corporation), small businesses (
Business Development Bank of Canada), and exporters (
Export Development Canada). Crown corporations have been most common in transport, telecommunications, utilities, and power generation, but they have also been involved in alcohol sales, gaming, finance, insurance, agriculture, culture and other industries. Significant crown corporations include
Petro-Canada, which was founded in 1975 to create a national oil Crown corporation; and
Canada Post Corporation, which in 1981 replaced the federal
Post Office Department. In the 1970s, a debate emerged about the role and effectiveness of crown corporations, and whether they had become too prominent in the economy. Inspired by
Margaret Thatcher's sell-off of state assets in Britain in the 1980s, Canadian Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney privatized many of Canada's Crown corporations, including
Air Canada,
Petro-Canada, and
Canadair. Sectors that were once dominated by Crown corporations, such as telecommunications, were almost fully privatized. For example, most provinces sold off their phone companies in the 1990s. British Columbia sold off parts of
BC Hydro, Saskatchewan privatized
PotashCorp, the world's largest producer of fertilizer, and Nova Scotia privatized its electricity company
Nova Scotia Power. Alberta privatized its liquor stores in 1996, although in this case, most other provinces did not follow suit. Nevertheless, some new crown corporations have since been created, such as the
Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) which was formed in response to the 11 September 2001 attacks to provide passenger and baggage screening at airports (rather than leave it to airlines). == List of federal Crown corporations ==