Public Service, Private ProfitsPublic Service, Private Profits
PPPs/P3s have become all the rage amongst every level of government in Canada in recent years. Proponents claim P3s reduce the costs of building and operating public projects and services,that projects and services are delivered more efficiently through the P3 model, so that in the end taxpayers are better off economically and as consumers of public goods. This book tests all of these claims, and more, finding them mostly empty, ideological assertions. Through an exhaustive series of case studies of P3s in Canada — from schools, bridges and water treatment plants to social services and hospital food — this book finds that most P3s are more costly to build and finance, provide poorer quality services and are less accessible than if they were built and operated by public servants. Moreover, many essential services are less accountable to citizens when private corporations are involved.
An analysis of the claim that private-public partnerships (called PPPs or P3s) reduce the building and operating costs of public projects and services, this study examines a large number of P3 case studies?from schools, bridges, and water treatment plants to social services and hospital food services?and concludes the opposite: most P3s are more costly to build and finance, provide poorer services, and are less accessible than if they had been built and operated by public servants. The book provides a clear explanation of what P3s are, the misleading accounting procedures used by governments to make them appear more palatable, and how many essential services are less accountable to citizens when private corporations become involved.
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- Black Point, NS : Fernwood Publishing, 2010.
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