Posts by Keith Reynolds

Keith Reynolds

About Keith Reynolds

Keith Reynolds is the former National Research Representative for the Canadian Union of Public Employees. He has done policy work for all three levels of government. His areas of expertise include privatization, P3s, and municipal government and finance. Follow Keith on Twitter

What is the “right amount” for local governments to spend?

Oct 23, 2014
By
Just how much money should a local government spend? If you ask the Fraser Institute, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) or the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) you will always get the same answer: they should spend less.  Oddly, taxpayers sometimes disagree. The Fraser Institute produced a report this week titled Comparing Municipal Government… View Article

BC’s controversial contract obligations dwarf its debt

Jul 18, 2014
By
Most of the discussion around the delivery of British Columbia’s public accounts this week has centred on debt (Marvin Shaffer makes excellent points in the previous post on why debt is not always bad) and on how BC got the money to balance its books. Something else worth looking at, however, is British Columbia’s non-debt… View Article

Quebec’s Auditor General slams highway public private partnership

Jun 12, 2014
By
Yesterday Quebec’s Auditor General came out with a report slamming public private partnerships in that province.  The special audit was conducted at the request of the Conseil du trésor.  It looked at the agreement for the seven service areas on Québec’s highways. The following is a summary of the findings. The analysis conducted to demonstrate… View Article

Britain and British Columbia now moving in different directions on P3s. BC taxpayers may be the losers

May 20, 2014
By
A dozen years ago when Gordon Campbell’s newly elected British Columbia government decided it wanted to build its infrastructure with public private partnerships (P3s) it turned to England for advice.  The British model for infrastructure shaped much of what BC did in the ensuing years.  Lately, British Columbia and the UK have been going in different… View Article

You always learn something when accountants feud

Dec 9, 2013
By
Every year in BC people who follow government get an early Christmas present in late November,  For the better part of a week BC’s Auditor General sits down with the legislature’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to talk about the Auditor General’s reports. This year’s encounter was quieter than some in the past.  Former Auditor General… View Article

BC hospital P3 ownership moves to tax haven

Nov 6, 2013
By
One more of British Columbia’s public private partnerships (P3s) has headed on down the road to ownership in a European tax haven.  Bilfinger Berger Global Infrastructure completed deals last summer to acquire equity and loans for the Kelowna Vernon Hospital.  It is also buying out equity and loans on Alberta’s North East Stoney Trail highway… View Article

Stats Can rebuts CFIB on public sector sick leave

Sep 20, 2013
By
Yesterday Statistics Canada published a nice counterpoint to part of the relentless drumbeat against public employees by organizations like the Fraser Institute and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). Last December the CFIB published a report noting the horrifying finding that when it came to sick, disability and personal days off, public sector workers… View Article