Cost of P3 construction "much higher".
from the Ontario Health Coalition
While Ontarians are asked to accept deep cuts to hospital and health services, Ontario Health Coalition Director Natalie Mehra questions why there is no public audit of $4 billion in private-public partnership construction of hospitals, particularly when new international evidence of exorbitant P3 profit-taking has recently come to light.
In a submission to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs, the OHC points to recent reports out of Great Britain of astronomical profit-taking of 66.7 percent, paid to P3 consortia involved in major hospital projects.
The coalition says that Infrastructure Ontario's own documents indicate much higher costs for construction and financing of P3s compared to public sector comparators. The entire financial case for P3s rests on "the heavily contested notion" of risk transfer, evidence of which is unavailable and unaudited.
Cost curtailment in hospital and health services have totalled $3 billion in the past three years, and hospitals must find in the current fiscal year a further $1 billion in cuts. Meanwhile, says the coalition, six P3 hospital projects near completion total $4 billion in costs which have not been subject to any public interest oversight.
Only the Brampton Hospital was audited. The Auditor-General found that the P3 project was about $200 million more expensive than if the hospital had been built publicly.
The report states that all board members of Infrastructure Ontario come from private capital market firms, banks, architects, private insurance companies, private law firms involved in real estate commercial development, construction and P3 consulting firms.
“In other words, the board of Infrastructure Ontario is entirely populated with people who come out of corporations or entities with ties to vested interests in P3 profits and privatization,” states the report.
Some of the same profit-seeking companies involved in the British P3 scandals are involved in Ontario's P3 projects, according to the coalition.
The OHC's recommendations to the standing committee include:
- a halt to hospital service cuts.
- an immediate moratorium on cuts to rural and small hospitals and for-profit privatization of hospital services.
- an immediate moratorium on P3 construction of hospitals.
- an increase in hospital funding.
- a full audit of all P3 hospital projects to date.
Read the full submission.
© Copyright 2013 Ontario Health Coalition, All rights Reserved. Written For: StraightGoods.ca
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