Highway 407 sold (CBC News April 14, 1999)
The Tory government has sold highway 407 for $3.1 billion dollars.
The sale of the electronic toll road that runs just north of Toronto is being called the biggest privatization deal ever made in North America.
A Quebec-based engineering firm and a Spanish partner are paying more than $3 billion for the continent's longest electronic toll road. That's twice the amount the government invested in the highway - meaning the Tories have made a $1.5 billion dollar profit by privatizing a project started by Bob Rae's NDP government.
Originally the 407 was to pay for itself and become a free public highway in approximately 30 years. The Tory government passed a law allowing the government to sell it off.
The conditions of the sale allow the new owners to set whatever toll rates it wants for the next 99 years.
The Rae government developed the 407 ETR highway by seeking out private sector partnerships and using leading-edge electronic road pricing technology. Two firms bid on the project, with the Canadian Highways International Corporation being selected as the operator of the highway. Financing for the highway would be paid by user tolls lasting 35 years, after which it would return to the provincial system as a toll-free 400-series highway.