Privatization, P3s & public services

New BC Auditor General report finds public private partnerships double the cost of borrowing

Oct 30, 2014
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British Columbia’s new Auditor General, Carol Bellringer, published her annual report on government’s 2013-14 summary financial statements today and it contains some pretty interesting highlights. First of all, and for the first time, the AG has published a comparison of how much it costs the government to undertake projects on its own compared to using… View Article

The dangers of deregulation extend beyond mining disasters

Aug 22, 2014
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The Mount Polley Mine disaster has raised important questions about the risks and costs of deregulation of the mining industry in BC. I spoke about this issue recently on CBC Vancouver’s Early Edition and CBC Kamloops’ Daybreak (if you missed it, there’s audio here, starts around 1:00:48). As a citizen and as a public interest… View Article

Will offsets be the “indulgences” for our LNG sins?

Jul 18, 2014
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In June 2014, the BC government reported on its progress towards the 2007 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act, which calls for a one-third reduction by 2020 in GHG emissions (relative to 2007 levels) and an 80% reduction by 2050. The BC government claimed to have met a key milestone: an interim target of a 6%… View Article

BC’s controversial contract obligations dwarf its debt

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Most of the discussion around the delivery of British Columbia’s public accounts this week has centred on debt (Marvin Shaffer makes excellent points in the previous post on why debt is not always bad) and on how BC got the money to balance its books. Something else worth looking at, however, is British Columbia’s non-debt… View Article

Quebec’s Auditor General slams highway public private partnership

Jun 12, 2014
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Yesterday Quebec’s Auditor General came out with a report slamming public private partnerships in that province.  The special audit was conducted at the request of the Conseil du trésor.  It looked at the agreement for the seven service areas on Québec’s highways. The following is a summary of the findings. The analysis conducted to demonstrate… View Article

Britain and British Columbia now moving in different directions on P3s. BC taxpayers may be the losers

May 20, 2014
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A dozen years ago when Gordon Campbell’s newly elected British Columbia government decided it wanted to build its infrastructure with public private partnerships (P3s) it turned to England for advice.  The British model for infrastructure shaped much of what BC did in the ensuing years.  Lately, British Columbia and the UK have been going in different… View Article

You always learn something when accountants feud

Dec 9, 2013
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Every year in BC people who follow government get an early Christmas present in late November,  For the better part of a week BC’s Auditor General sits down with the legislature’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to talk about the Auditor General’s reports. This year’s encounter was quieter than some in the past.  Former Auditor General… View Article