One more provincial Auditor General has come out swinging at public private partnerships (P3s). Last week New Brunswick’s AG released a report on two P3 schools that had been announced by the NB government in 2008. New Brunswick Auditor General Kim MacPherson joins public auditors in Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia who have [...]
Entries Tagged as 'P3'
New Brunswick Auditor General latest to blast public private partnerships
January 15th, 2012 · Keith Reynolds · Comments Off · Privatization, P3s & public services
Public private partnerships under increasing attack in the UK
August 19th, 2011 · Keith Reynolds · 2 Comments · Privatization, P3s & public services, Transparency & accountability
While British Columbia continues to invest billions in public private partnerships(P3s), a UK Parliamentary Committee today told its government to “wean itself off the practice.” The Treasury Select Committee found: We have not seen clear evidence of savings and benefits in other areas of PFI projects which are sufficient to offset this significantly higher cost of [...]
Suspicion about private finance schemes growing in the UK
June 2nd, 2011 · Keith Reynolds · 5 Comments · Privatization, P3s & public services, Transparency & accountability
On May 16th British Columbia’s Auditor General published a report on Vancouver General Hospital P3 that raised serious doubts about public private partnerships in British Columbia. In the UK, where P3s have been around a lot longer, the doubts are getting even graver. Under P3s, or private finance initiative (PFI) as they are known in [...]
British Columbia Auditor finds costly failings in Province’s first hospital P3
May 23rd, 2011 · Keith Reynolds · 3 Comments · Privatization, P3s & public services, Transparency & accountability
A new report by British Columbia’s Auditor General has debunked nearly every benefit claimed so far for public private partnerships (P3s). The Auditor General’s report on a Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (VCHA) project adds to earlier criticisms by his counterparts about failings in P3 hospital projects in Quebec and Ontario. The BC report, released on [...]
Quebec Auditor General slams P3s in hospital project
June 11th, 2010 · Keith Reynolds · Comments Off · Privatization, P3s & public services, Transparency & accountability
Quebec’s Auditor General has issued yet one more report slamming the use of public private partnerships (P3s). With P3s, private corporations finance and operate public facilities and services. The money they invest is more costly than money borrowed publicly. It is paid back to them, along with profits for the corporation, by governments over multi-decade contracts. [...]
Problems for the South Fraser Perimeter Road P3?
May 12th, 2010 · Keith Reynolds · 2 Comments · Environment, resources & sustainability, Privatization, P3s & public services, Transparency & accountability
There are some interesting recent developments on the South Fraser Perimeter Road (SFPR) public private partnership project. A press release issued Friday afternoon announced the successful bidder in response to a Requests for Proposal. The results may not be what we were led to expect. The SFPR project is part of the Province’s Gateway project [...]
Tags: Gateway·Ministry of Transportation·P3·Partnerships BC·South Fraser Perimeter Road
The Premier speaks out on labour issues
April 30th, 2009 · Keith Reynolds · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Employment & labour, Privatization, P3s & public services
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, [...]
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 · Comments Off · 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 · Comments Off · 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 at [...]
Tags: Canada Line·P3·Translink
And Another Thing About the Port Mann non-P3
March 4th, 2009 · Marvin Shaffer · Comments Off · 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 [...]
Tags: Canada Line·P3·Port Mann·transportation
