Tell Trudeau: no more “pay more, get less” P3 privatization deals

BC's Sea to Sky highway cost $220 million more as a P3

A P3 at this Montreal university doubled in cost, from $200 million to $400 million.

Canada’s Federal government has promised $120 billion in infrastructure spending over the next ten years. This spending could have undeniable benefits for communities everywhere.

One problem: bankers and billionaires have been celebrating the news, expecting to cash in through Public Private Partnerships (P3s) and other giveaways. The Financial Post recently reported that bank analysts believe “that a large portion of [infrastructure] money will go towards public-private partnerships (P3s).”

The major P3 advocacy group expressed its excitement publicly right after the 2016 budget was announced.

There is still time to prevent these giveaways!

P3s: Corporate cash giveaways in disguise

P3s have been shown over and over again to essentially be cash giveaways to big corporate investors, at the public’s expense. No surprise that the Financial Post story had analysts from banking giants RBC and TD salivating over the profits they expect to roll in.

Study after study has proved it: after cost overruns and interest, P3s cost the public more, and we get less. A few of the many examples:

• Ontario’s Auditor-General reported that a P3 hospital in Brampton cost $200 million more than it would have if it was publicly financed and built

• A P3 project at a Quebec University doubled in cost from $200 million to $400 million

• BC's Sea to Sky highway would have cost $220 million less if it had been publicly owned and operated
  
  

Liberal decision: pumped up banks or public benefits?

Justin Trudeau has flirted with P3s in the past, giving a keynote to the Canadian Council for Public Private Partnerships in 2014. The Canadian Business Journal reported that Trudeau had made it “abundantly clear” that he endorses the P3 model.

There’s still time to make sure he changes his mind, and rejects the austerity agenda that sacrifices the common good for corporate profits.

Let’s demand that Trudeau commit to public financing and ownership of new infrastructure!