Structure
In Canada, Crown corporations, within either the federal or provincial spheres, are technically owned and operated by the monarch, as the institution's sole shareholder; this follows the legal premise that the Crown, as an institution, owns all the property of state. In practice, most Crown corporations operate at arm's length from the government (the Queen-in-Council), with direct government control only being exerted over the corporation's budget and the appointment of its chairperson and directors through Orders-in-Council.
Some Crown corporations are expected to be profitable organisations, while others are non-commercial and rely entirely on public funds to operate. Further, in the federal sphere, certain Crown corporations can be an agents or non-agent of the Queen in Right of Canada. One with agent status is entitled to the same constitutional prerogatives, privileges, and immunities held by the Crown and can bind the Crown by its acts. The Crown is thus entirely responsible for the actions of these organisations. The Crown is not liable for Crown corporations with non-agent status, except for actions of that corporation carried out on instruction from the government, though there may be "moral obligations" on the part of the Crown in other circumstances.
Read more about this topic: Crown Corporations Of Canada
Famous quotes containing the word structure:
“Each structure and institution here was so primitive that you could at once refer it to its source; but our buildings commonly suggest neither their origin nor their purpose.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I really do inhabit a system in which words are capable of shaking the entire structure of government, where words can prove mightier than ten military divisions.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)
“The philosopher believes that the value of his philosophy lies in its totality, in its structure: posterity discovers it in the stones with which he built and with which other structures are subsequently built that are frequently better—and so, in the fact that that structure can be demolished and yet still possess value as material.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)