Klein ignores evidence P3’s don’t work

Gil McGowan, AFL Staff

The Alberta government says it will push ahead with plans to let the private sector finance, build and operate new roads, hospitals and schools – despite evidence that similar schemes have failed miserably in other provinces and countries.

In an interview with the Calgary Herald, Premier Ralph Klein said that so-called public-private partnerships – or P3s for short – may become the government’s preferred method for getting major infrastructure projects off the ground.

"You name it, anything that involves public infrastructure basically is eligible for the three-P scenario," he said.

Government sources say that as much of $500 million of the province’s expected $1.4 billion surplus will be spent on infrastructure projects over the next year – and significant amounts of that money will be funneled to P3s.

Two major projects in particular – the construction of a new hospital in southeast Calgary and the development of a new heart institute at the U of A hospital in Edmonton – are expected to be built by investors and leased back to the government.

Critics of the P3 approach have pointed out that Alberta’s plan flies in the face of evidence from across the country and around the world.

"These schemes have been tried in other provinces like Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and in other countries like Britain and New Zealand," says Les Steel, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour. "Wherever they’ve been tried, they’ve failed. The big question is: why is our government ignoring the evidence? Why are they ignoring the danger signs?"

The auditor general of New Brunswick reported that one P3 school cost $900,000 more than if it had been built and operated publicly. Similarly, researchers in Britain revealed that a P3 hospital in southern England cost $1.8 billion pounds more than if it had been developed within the public system.

"The government wants us to believe that these schemes will save us money. But it’s nothing more than an accounting slight of hand," says CUPE Alberta Division President Yvonne Fast. "Decisions including public access to schools, the location of new schools and hospitals as well as staffing and service levels are typically handed to the private sector with no public input. It reduces transparency, hampers accountability and allows investors to put their interests ahead of the public’s."