The Alberta government is barreling ahead with sweeping plans to hand schools, hospitals and highways to corporations through public private partnerships. The plans include a new government agency to promote P3s. Ralph Klein’s “everything’s for sale” approach to public services has met stiff opposition from CUPE as well as a wide range of other community members. Armed with evidence from across Canada and around the world, CUPE has demanded a meeting with Klein.
The announcement is bad news for health care, as the provincial Tories continue their slow and steady assault on public health care. Taking its cue from the Tories, the Calgary Health Region recently announced a garage sale of its own, taking out national ads calling for business to invest in privatizing “everything related to health care”. The health region has also said it will pursue a P3 hospital, to replace one of the three hospitals closed and then dynamited in the privatization frenzy of the mid 1990s.
The announcement is bad news for health care, as the provincial Tories continue their slow and steady assault on public health care. Taking its cue from the Tories, the Calgary Health Region recently announced a garage sale of its own, taking out national ads calling for business to invest in privatizing “everything related to health care”. The health region has also said it will pursue a P3 hospital, to replace one of the three hospitals closed and then dynamited in the privatization frenzy of the mid 1990s.