P3 Schools a Mistake Alberta’s Made Many Times Before
P3 Schools a Mistake Alberta’s Made Many Times Before
EDMONTON, Alberta--(BUSINESS WIRE)--How many times can Alberta conservatives make the same mistake building schools?
That’s a question posed by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE Alberta) today as the Alberta government announces it will again use public-private partnerships (P3s) to build schools. The government has twice abandoned this model in the past.
CUPE Alberta President Raj Uppal pointed out that the conservative government used P3s to build schools up to 2014, and then abandoned the model. They tried again in 2019 and changed direction once more in 2022.
Under a P3 model, the government initially pays less for the construction of a school, and then pays a form of rent over several decades that costs taxpayers much more in the long run. P3s also lead to accountability problems with the maintenance and upkeep of the building. The model keeps a lot of debt ‘off book’ and is therefore attractive to the UCP, who are battling a huge deficit despite record royalty revenues.
“P3s don’t work unless you want to pay off private developers who are friends of the government,” said Uppal. “A government that is already soaked in scandal for giving sweet contracts to friends for ‘Turkish Tylenol' should probably be more careful.”
“Alberta abandoned this model twice before. Other provinces have abandoned it too. Taxpayers will be robbed for schools that should just be built the conventional, safe way.”
Sources:
Conservatives abandon P3s in 2014:
https://globalnews.ca/news/1401800/alberta-government-scraps-p3-funding-model-for-new-schools/
Conservatives abandon P3s in 2022:
clc/cope 491
Contacts
Lou Arab, Communications Representative
780.271.2722 larab@cupe.ca
