Exploring Holding Company Models for Federal Crown Corporations

As a contribution to the dialogue around improving the governance and performance environment for commercially oriented federal Crown corporations, this report examines international and provincial management structures for state-owned enterprises and Crown corporations. The aim is to identify elements of these models that may be applied in the federal Crown corporation context to address governance and accountability challenges.

The report begins by reviewing the current governance structure of some of Canada’s federal Crown corporations. We highlight long-standing challenges identified in the performance and governance of these organizations and then investigate international and provincial models using these concerns as a baseline. The report ends with a series of thought exercises to conceptualize how three distinct revised governance and accountability structures may be applied in the federal context to address gaps in the current regime. These exercises are intended to spark discussion and consideration by governments and Crown corporation leaders.