In another example that the old neo-con ideal is not dead yet, Nova Scotia like Alberta is once again looking at P3's as a solution to long term funding of infrastructure. Despite its failure in that province previously. And like Alberta, which has a labour boom while Nova Scotia has a labour deficit, the costs will rise because of scarcity of labour. Those costs will be passed on to taxpayers if not now then over the life of the P3 agreement.
Once hailed as the new vision of the right, privatization, P3's and contracting out have proven to be a billion dollar boon-doogle and not a solution to rising costs. They are in fact simply taxpayers paying private companies to provide services that make them profit, by cutting wages and providing poorer quality, and they end up costing us more in the long run. It looked good on paper, but as with most of these ideas from the seventies they have proven their time has come and gone.
In fact in Canada it is your and my pension funds that paying for these P3's. So we get screwed twice as taxpayers.
SEENova Scotia Throne Speech eyes privately funded roads, bridges
HALIFAX — Nova Scotia's Conservative government has opened the fall session of the legislature with a Throne Speech promising a return to public-private partnerships in constructing roads, schools and other facilities.
In a document entitled “Throne Speech for the New Nova Scotia,” the government says it has learned from the mistakes made when a previous Liberal government introduced the P3 concept that built 30 schools in the 1990s.
The government says with a $12.4-billion debt, it has to find ways to reduce the costs of building and maintaining public roadways and buildings.
The speech estimates the province is facing a long-term bill of $8-billion to build and maintain infrastructure.
The document also says a new department will be created that is focused solely on the environment, along with a new Ministry of Labour and Workforce Development to help deal with a shortage of skilled labour.
The government is also promising new education standards with primary attention paid to mathematics and literacy and says it will continue a freeze on university tuition with more reductions planned.
Nova Scota Imitates Alberta
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