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Ottawa, ON – The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is available for comment on the Conference Board of Canada report entitled “Experience pays: The growing value of public-private partnerships In Canada”.

As expected with a report funding by P3 companies, this report soft-pedaled the serious issues facing P3 and trumped up the benefits and expansion of P3s,” said CUPE National President Paul Moist. “There’s no mention of the massive problems at P3 projects like the McGill University Health Centre or the cancellation of the Ontario gas plants.”

The report was funded by Alberta Infrastructure, Infrastructure Ontario, Infrastructure Québec, Partnerships British Columbia, PPP Canada, and The Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships, all groups with a vested interested in the status quo for P3s.

Many municipalities are saying no to these risky deals, which often mean handing over control of public services and infrastructure to for-profit corporations,” said Moist. “Case after case illustrates that P3s can lead to higher long term costs for taxpayers, a loss of control of public assets, and greatly diminished public accountability and oversight.”

And when auditors have really looked at the numbers they’ve found that P3s invariably don’t provide value for money and cost more than they would if they were provided traditionally,” added Moist.

CUPE has conducted significant research into the true costs of P3s. Our latest report can be found at http://cupe.ca/municipalities/questions-guide-municipal-officials.

  

For more information:

Tria Donaldson
CUPE Communications
Canadian Union of Public Employees
613-915-0763
tdonaldson@cupe.ca