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

Freedom of information review: how to fix a broken system

Mar 29, 2022
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A lot of people don’t trust their governments these days. One of the things that undermines trust in government is when people don’t think government is being transparent. What is the government doing and how is it making its decisions? That is where Freedom of Information (FOI) can come in. When FOI works, it lets… View Article

As UK Auditor disparages P3s, BC continues to use them

Jan 25, 2018
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The public private partnership (P3) model to provide public infrastructure and services is an expensive mess, and new international evidence confirms this. The question now becomes, when is that mess going to wash up on BC’s shore? Despite increasing evidence that P3s are a bad idea, BC’s government is going ahead with this flawed procurement model,… View Article

The enormous cost of public-private partnerships

Aug 3, 2017
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Three recent BC public private partnership (P3) hospitals developed in co-operation with the province’s Partnerships BC (PBC) will cost the public $260 million more than traditionally delivered projects, according to figures released in July in response to a Freedom of Information request.1 The three projects were the BC Children’s and BC Women’s Redevelopment Project Phase… View Article

To protect her legacy, Premier Clark should put a moratorium on the destruction of documents

Jun 1, 2017
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British Columbia is in interesting times politically and that makes transparency around government decisions more important than ever. It is both a medium-term issue and a critical short-term issue. Controversies around access to government information dogged the government in recent years. The “triple delete” scandal saw a government functionary fined $2,500 for making false statements… View Article

Manitoba opens door to public sector secrecy as Ottawa calls for increase in P3 projects

Mar 22, 2017
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Wednesday’s federal Budget reaffirms the Canadian Government’s commitment to its promised “Canada Infrastructure Bank.” This opens the door to having corporations deliver public infrastructure through public private partnerships which is a controversial move. In the words of one writer: In other words, public-private partnerships are sort of like credit cards: You get the shiny thing… View Article

Massey Bridge P3 borrowing costs yet another problem

Oct 14, 2016
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As more information becomes available about the controversial $3.5-billion, 10-lane Massey Bridge project, concern about the project increases. Issues had already been raised about the cost and need for the project given questions about traffic growth, but the publication of two new documents raises concerns about the plan to build the bridge as a public private… View Article

Penticton’s peculiar policy on freedom of information

Sep 30, 2016
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This is International Right to Know Week, a week in honour of the public’s right to information held by their governments. The week is being celebrated in different ways in the 105 countries around the world with right to information laws. Here in British Columbia the City of Penticton is celebrating it in a spectacularly disappointing… View Article