“Don’t lose control of your facility. They always say we’re not selling the facility to them, but the bottom line is you lose control because the politicians say now everything’s on auto-pilot … The politicians want you to believe people don’t care, that all they want to know is when you pull the handle it flushes. But they do care.”
— former Stockton water worker Michael McDonald’s advice to residents of Victoria, BC, where the municipal government is considering building a new wastewater treatment plant as a P3. McDonald quit after 26 years on the job when the California city’s sewage treatment plant operations and maintenance were privatized in 2003. McDonald appears in the privatization documentary Thirst. He came to Victoria as part of World Water Day celebrations co-sponsored by CUPE BC.