Tom Graham, President, CUPE Saskatchewan Division

In a letter to editor appearing in today’s Leader Post, Tom Graham points out that CUPE is not alone in raising concerns about the government’s misguided plan to use public-private partnerships (P3s) to build new schools.

“Even local business groups recognize that P3 contracts do little for Saskatchewan’s economy, with higher overall pricetags and favouring big, out-of-province construction firms instead of using local expertise,” writes Graham.

RE: GOV’T SHOULD RETHINK P3 SCHOOL MODEL

In his Oct. 29 column (“Gov’t should rethink P3 school model”) Murray Mandryk correctly pointed out that unions such as the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) are not alone in raising concerns about the government’s misguided plan to use public-private partnership (P3) privatization schemes to build new schools. That is because CUPE’s opposition to P3s is not solely about jobs; it is also about dollars and cents.

 
Even local business groups recognize that P3 contracts do little for Saskatchewan’s economy, with higher overall pricetags and favouring big, out-of-province construction firms instead of using local expertise.  P3s are first and foremost about corporations making profit at the expense of taxpayers, and P3 school experiments across Canada show that taxpayers are always on the hook to pay more.

 
In a 2007 report on Alberta’s experiment with P3 schools, economist Hugh Mackenzie revealed that for the cost of every two schools built under a P3 contract an additional school could have been built. Nova Scotia’s auditor general reported in 2010 that the experiment with P3 schools was a taxpayer ripoff. Last year, New Brunswick’s auditor general examined two P3 contracts for schools in that province and again found that public procurement would have been significantly cheaper.

 
The government should abandon its ideology on P3s and instead look at the facts. P3 schools are not worth the risk.

 
TOM GRAHAM

President, CUPE Saskatchewan Division

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