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TORONTO 005400680065 Premier of Newfoundland and highly-placed officials from the government of British Columbia and Ontario will be among the guests at an industry-sponsored conference on privatizing schools and other public services in Toronto.

Also attending will be current and former school board officials, emergency services officials, and senior health services and hospital managers from Alberta, Nova Scotia, Ontario and British Columbia.

These officials will be guest speakers and participants at a conference on Public Private Partnerships, or P3s. A front for the world’s largest corporations, the P3 conference attempts to find ways to privatize literally any public service 007300630068ools, hospitals, roads, social services and water.

Typically, P3 arrangements take the form of long-term leases, where a private company builds something and then leases it back to the public. Once the building needs repairs, at the end of the lease, the private corporation walks away, leaving the public to pick up the tab.

Huge user fees 0072006f0061d tolls, extra fees to use schools after hours, special charges to use community facilities 006100720065 typically involved as corporations need to extract as much money as possible during the lease.

P3s have been criticized by Auditors General as costing more, since the public sector can borrow money for less. In one New Brunswick example, the Auditor General said a P3 school cost almost $900,000 more because it was privatized. Similar scandals have been uncovered in health care, highways, water and social services.

Making the trip are:

  • Brian Tobin, Premier of Newfoundland
  • Manuel Achadinha, director of the implementation branch for the BC government finance department;
  • George Miller, recently-retired superintendent of schools in Burnaby.
  • Beatrice Denboer, senior planner, Edmonton School Board
  • Dr. Brian Murphy, commissioner, Nova Scotia Emergency Response System
  • Art Leitch, regional general manager of Hamilton transportation, operations and the environment;
  • Scott Rowand, CEO of the Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation.
  • Ron Trbovich, superintendent, Durham District School Board
  • John Burke, City of Ottawa
  • Joanne Yelle-Weatherall Ottawa-Carleton ambulances service
  • Alan Goldbloom, Hospital for Sick Children
  • Angelo Sangiorgio, Catholic school board;
  • Gary Parkinson, Toronto school board
  • Norbert Hartman, Ministry of Education
  • Bob Cranch, City of Brampton
  • Michael Jordan, Ministry of the Solicitor General.

“We are deeply concerned that without debate in their respective cities and provinces and with no mandate, these representatives are taking part in discussions about ways to hand over public schools and other services to the private sector,” said Judy Darcy, National President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. “Public officials are there to protect our public assets, not sell them off for profit.”

For More Information: Karin Jordan

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