Working on the railway: a case study in capital-state relations

The growing literature on corporate strategies for dealing with government focuses primarily on the organization and articulation of business interests. The processes through which the negotiations are pursued, and the factors which shape their outcomes, have drawn less attention. This paper examines the political relationship between the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Co. (Cominco) and Ottawa, which culminated in the signing of the Great Slave Lake Railway Agreement in 1961. In it the Government of Canada agreed to spend almost $100 million to finance a railway and related infrastructure in support of a lead-zinc mine development at Pine Point, NWT. The decision-making process is considered from both the capital-state and intrastate perspectives. While in the end Cominco was able to shift the major share of the railway costs into the public realm, this was far from a simple process. Overall, the case sheds light on the dynamics of bargaining between the corporation and the state, while also illustrating the difficulties of achieving policy coherence in a complex administration setting. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)