Campbell’s continued faith in P3s misguided, Ralston says

VICTORIA— Gordon Campbell’s continued faith in public-private partnerships is misguided, Bruce Ralston said today.

Ralston, the New Democrat Critic for Finance, said Campbell’s insistence that all major public projects be directed toward the P3 route shows that the Premier’s ideology continues to take preference over facts.

“There’s still no good evidence that P3s will save public money in every circumstance, and some pretty compelling evidence that they will cost more in the long run,” said Ralston, the MLA for Surrey – Whalley.

Premier Campbell told the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Victoria Thursday that any project costing more than $20 million will be considered for P3 status. Finance Minister Carole Taylor has argued that P3s transfer the risk from the public coffers to the private contractor.

In Britain, where P3s have been in place for many years, they’ve determined that argument is just wishful thinking. According to the British Association of Certified Chartered Accountants “the actual risk is very limited and hardly commensurate with their abnormally high returns.  Taken together, our evidence shows that risk transfer, the fundamental component of Value for Money, has proved very expensive.”

A recent report by economist Marvin Shaffer has shown that the Value for Money report used by PartnershipsBC is faulty, and that the Sea to Sky project will actually cost $220 million more than were it built through the conventional, non P3 method, primarily because it ignores the fact the government can borrow money at a lower cost than the private sector.

Ralston said Premier Campbell’s abiding faith in P3s can’t make up for the evidence showing significant problems.

“It makes no sense that the Premier continues to push his government to re-create the mistakes of others,” Ralston said. “Blind faith in ideology doesn’t make good policy.”