The BC Government has gone to great lengths to make sure all large capital projects in the province use a private-public-partnership model (also known as a PPP or P3 model). 

This is puzzling, and verges on the criminal, given that there is no proof that the private sector does a better job at building or running public facilities and services*. 

On the other hand, there is ample evidence that shows that citizens are better served and costs are more affordable when vital public services are operated publicly.

Despite the facts of the matter, the BC Government seems hell-bent to privatize as many public facilities and services as they can, and they got the ball rolling in earnest in 2002 when they created the Capital Asset Management Framework.  This framework requires all public projects to include a private partnership deal, unless a compelling argument (or “business case”) can be made to keep the project fully in the public hands**.

The second thing the BC Government did, in 2003, was to create Partnerships BC, a company wholly owned by the BC Government with a mandate to promote PPPs and to review and comment on these “business cases”. 

While the ultimate decision rests with the Minister of Community and Rural Development, clearly Partnerships BC plays a significant role in influencing the decision-making process.  Unfortunately, their review criteria has been found to be fundamentally flawed and biased in favour of the private sector. 

The third thing the BC Government did was ban citizen petitions that aim to force a referendum at the local government level (which would allow voters to have their say about PPPs).  This ban came into effect immediately after the 2003 decision by the Municipality of Whistler to keep their sewage system public, in response to the volume of signatures gathered in opposition to privatization. 

To me, this last point is the most shocking, probably because it completes the picture:  the BC Government has bound and gagged us to prevent us from speaking up against their reckless, fiscally criminal love of PPPs.  If PPPs are so great, why does the Provincial Government feel the need to ram them down our throat?

Even though the deck is entirely stacked against keeping public services in public hands, and the BC Government’s track record on privatization is long and strong, I feel it is vital and ordinary citizens demand an unbias examination of the pros and cons of PPPs.  Let’s start infusing actual facts into the debate about PPPs.   

* A 2006 Government of Canada policy paper on PPPs says it best:  “...because of the lack of systematic evaluation of experience, there is no evidence that the benefits of introducing the private sector [into the pubic water sector] offset the costs (transactions costs, regulation costs and the costs of introducing and supporting competition).”

** Here is a direct quote from the Capital Asset Management Framework:  “public private partnership (PPP) must be considered the base case procurement option where the provincial contribution to the capital cost exceeds $50 million.” (Source:  Ministry of Finance website)