Public interest vs private profits

With its ground-breaking first Annual Report on Privatization, CUPE documented the impact on Canadian life of increased privatization of vital public services. Called Hostile Takeover, the report examined the consequences for families and communities as quality, access and safety are eroded and jobs are cut.

In this year’s report, we’ve dug deeper to expose the risks of private control of health care, water and schools — and the higher cost to taxpayers over the short and long term. Drawing on experiences from Canada and around the world, we’ve demonstrated the perilous gap between the promise and performance of for-profit services. Whether it’s costly ‘public private partnerships’ or outright privatization, we’ve shown that the public interest suffers as Canadians — especially women, youth, people of colour and Aboriginal Canadians — pay a heavy price.

We’ve also tried to answer the question "Who’s pushing privatization?" because it’s important to understand whose interests are being served by dismantling public services and promoting for-profit alternatives. A small but increasingly powerful cluster of corporations are peddling their vision of market-driven public services at the local, provincial, national and international levels. Too often they’re aided by politicians and pundits who share their ideology or their interests, out of step with the strong support among Canadians for a major reinvestment in public services.

Privatization is often presented as the cure to whatever ails public services. But the evidence clearly demonstrates it’s the wrong remedy to a self-induced illness. Years of cutbacks to services and staff have eroded public confidence. Yet Canadians recognize that with investment and innovation, public delivery means higher quality and better value.

Our public services are the envy of the world and the foundation of our quality of life. Rather than diverting valuable public resources to inflate the profits of corporate giants, we should turn our collective efforts to improving public services and public infrastructure for the benefit of all.

It’s what Canadians want. And it can be done.

Judy Darcy
National President
Canadian Union of Public Employees