On April 27th I posted about the BC Federation of Labour’s report on the impacts of changes to BC’s workers compensation system under the current government.
Today Tom Sandborn writing for the Tyee posted a story quoting Premier Campbell’s response to health and safety issues. The story also dealt with the NDP and labour issues, [...]
Entries Tagged as 'P3'
The Premier speaks out on labour issues
April 30th, 2009 · Keith Reynolds · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Employment & labour, Privatization, P3s & public services
Tags: BC Federation of Labour·Building Trades Council·construction·labour·P3·pensions·Tom Sandborn·welfare·workers' compensation·WorkSafe
Is the stimulus killing the P3 model?
March 27th, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Economy, Privatization, P3s & public services
While BC has not formally abandoned the P3 model, there is a notable absence of new P3 projects at a time when billions of dollars are being channeled to infrastructure spending. If P3s really provided value for money and brought the benefits of private sector efficiency and innovation to the delivery of public-sector infrastructure, then [...]
History lessons for Carole Taylor
March 22nd, 2009 · Keith Reynolds · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Privatization, P3s & public services
Former Finance Minister Carole Taylor was in court last week testifying in a lawsuit arising from damage to Cambie Street merchants from the Canada Line.
She was sympathetic to the merchants but, “It was a TransLink project,” she said. “There’s no question the province didn’t have any control over the project.” She admitted that [...]
Tags: Canada Line·P3·Translink
And Another Thing About the Port Mann non-P3
March 4th, 2009 · Marvin Shaffer · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Privatization, P3s & public services, Provincial budget & finance
Now that the government has abandoned private financing of the Port Mann, it’s time to make the bigger but equally sensible leap and abandon the concept of a cost recovery project toll.
I’m all for tolling. Unless you are a fan of the queues inevitably created by what can only be described as our current Bolshevik [...]
Tags: Canada Line·P3·Port Mann·transportation
Cancelled P3 saves $200 million
February 27th, 2009 · Keith Reynolds · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Privatization, P3s & public services
Wow. Things can change pretty quickly in a day. Apparently the Port Mann Bridge P3 was just too ridiculous.
Jeff Nagel already has a very interesting article in the Surrey Leader on the cancellation of the public private partnership. He includes the following quote from the Partnerships BC boss Larry Blain.
Critics have long [...]
Tags: P3·Port Mann·transportation
Death of a P3
February 27th, 2009 · Marc Lee · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Privatization, P3s & public services, Provincial budget & finance
And so the P3 financing deal for the Port Mann Super-Bridge died, conveniently right when it will get the least media coverage. Here’s the breaking news from the Sun:
The province has been unable to reach a finance-arranging deal with the consortium that was to build the new Port Mann Bridge, transportation Minister Kevin Falcon announced [...]
Tags: P3·Port Mann·transportation
P3s? Fairly ridiculous
February 27th, 2009 · Keith Reynolds · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Privatization, P3s & public services
They keep moving the goal posts for using public private partnerships (P3s) in BC to procure large projects.
Government officials have argued in the past that the magic bullet for P3s was the combination of risk transfer and private investment. The government transferred risk to the private sector and private companies risked losing their investment [...]
Electricity Policy in BC: "Buy High – Sell Low"
February 20th, 2009 · Marvin Shaffer · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Economy, Energy
It was only a one-liner in the budget — the government plans to spend $10 million to advance the $400 million Northwest transmission line project along Highway 37, a project it says it will develop in partnership with the private sector. But this not-so-little initiative raises major questions about electricity policy (and sustainable economic [...]
They don't pay taxes in Surrey? Who knew?
February 12th, 2009 · Keith Reynolds · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Privatization, P3s & public services, Taxes
Transportation Minister Keven Falcon had letters to the editor this week in both the Vancouver Sun and the Times Colonist saying, “The new Port Mann Bridge will not cost taxpayers a dime.”
He was saying that the bridge will be paid for by tolls but he seems to have forgotten that people who cross the bridge [...]
Tags: P3·Port Mann·transportation
Forensic auditors say P3s expensive, biased and secret
January 29th, 2009 · Keith Reynolds · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Privatization, P3s & public services
So who are you going to believe about public private partnerships (P3s)?
One side of the debate says they’re swell. They save money for taxpayers, they come in on budget and they transfer risk from governments to companies. But other people say details are kept secret from the public and that in fact [...]
Tags: Abbotsford Hospital·Canada Line·hospital·P3·Port Mann·privatization·Sea-to-Sky Highway·Vancouver General Hospital
