Private Water
Vancouver Island News Group
Thu 09 Apr 2009
Page: 0006
Section: Business Examiner - Vancouver Island - News

Privatization is bad for local businesses and taxpayers

The Canadian Union of Public Employees cares about public services. Like most Canadians, we support publicly provided, financed and controlled services - including those related to drinking water and sewage treatment. This commitment is, of course, rooted in our members. CUPE proudly represents thousands of workers who provide public services and who themselves are strong advocates. But our commitment is a broad one. And we often work on projects like the Capilano-Seymour Filtration project in the Lower Mainland where we do not represent any workers.

While the Canadian experience with privatization is still limited, a growing body of evidence here and elsewhere tells us that privatization is risky for the environment, for service quality, and for taxpayers who are left to pick up the pieces when deals fall through.

We also see a lack of accountability to the public in these secret deals and we believe this is bad for democracy. Information is kept not only from the public, but also from elected officials who must make the decisions and live with the consequences. For example, during the public debate about whether the Whistler sewage plant upgrade should be a public-private partnership (P3), a report critical of the P3 model by the engineering firm of Dayton and Knight was not shared with elected councillors.

Perhaps most significant, especially given the difficult financial times in which we find ourselves, P3s cost more.

CUPE recently commissioned a very significant piece of research from one of Canada's most respected forensic accountants, Ron Parks. Mr. Parks and his colleague Rosanne Terhart looked at a number of P3 projects in B.C. and found that they were more expensive than if they had been publicly operated and financed. They also found that the process used by Partnerships BC to review projects is biased in favour of P3s. I encourage you to look at the details of that report at www.keepwaterpublic.ca.

Here on Vancouver Island, you are looking at a major project in the form of sewage treatment for the Capital Regional District. This should be an incredible opportunity for the region and for local business, but frankly, if it is a P3, those opportunities will diminish.

As Victoria-based contractor John Knappett says, local construction and engineering businesses that could and would participate in the design and building under standard procurement arrangements get dealt out of the big P3 deals.

And the only way these private deals work is if the terms are locked in for 35 years or more, leaving the public and future generations with no meaningful say for decades.

CUPE strongly believes there is a role for the private sector in the design and building of public infrastructure and other projects. And we think this should continue.

But the evidence is mounting that the public-private partnership model that bundles up design, build, finance and operation is neither good value for taxpayers, nor good for local business.

Barry O'Neill is president of CUPE British Columbia, the province's biggest union with 75,000 members.

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