OTTAWA A new report exposes 100 examples of flawed, failed or abandoned infrastructure projects using the controversial public private partnership (P3) privatization model in Canada, Australia and the UK, undermining the overblown claims of P3 backers.
The report, produced by health coalitions and national unions, comes as governments at all levels persist with plans to privatize hospitals, roads and schools under P3s, controversial long-term deals with private finance and service corporations.
All governments have a moral and fiscal responsibility to stop encouraging this fatally flawed financing model, said CUPE National President Paul Moist. The federal government in particular must show leadership by making sure that the New Deal for Cities boosts public investment, not privatization through P3s.
The report, Flawed, Failed, Abandoned: 100 P3s, Canadian & International Evidence, documents dubious P3 projects in the health, municipal and education sectors, providing examples in provinces across Canada, as well as in Australia, England, Scotland and Wales. It details a litany of cost overruns, legal disputes, bankruptcies, environmental disasters, and shoddy construction. Many P3s have been abandoned outright as the steep terms required by the for-profit companies become clear.
Moist noted that P3s will only drain resources away from public services.
Continuing with P3 privatization in health, municipal and other sectors will only weaken public services and redirect scarce resources to multinational companies, eager for taxpayer-guaranteed profits, said Moist.
The report, written by Natalie Mehra of the Ontario Health Coalition, was produced with support from the BC Health Coalition, the Canadian Health Coalition, the Council of Canadians, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Friends of Medicare/Alberta, and the National Union of Public and General Employees.
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Contact: Paul Moist, National President, cell (613) 558-2873; Claude Gnreux, National Secretary-Treasurer (porte-parole francophone), cell (613) 794-8395; David Robbins CUPE Communications, cell (613) 878-1431
