Is Sault Ste. Marie's New Hospital At Risk For P3 Privatization?

McGuinty P3 Hospital Plans for Sault Ste. Marie

McGuinty's Hospital Privatization Plan

On May 25, 2005 the McGuinty government released their 5-Year Infrastructure Plan. The full plan is available on the ministry website at: http://www.pir.gov.on.ca/ .The plan calls for the following:

•	66 hospital projects over 5 years. 30 – 35% (approx. 23) of these are large and complex. The report says, "a significant number of large complex projects will be financed and built using alternative financing and procurement methods" pp. 7. The "alternative" financing method is private financing, rather than government funding which has been used to build hospitals since the mid-1940s. This means that the plan is to privatize up to 23 hospitals through private finance mechanisms called Public Private Partnerships or P3s.

Which hospitals are affected?

The list of hospitals pegged for privatization is secret. But so far, virtually every new hospital project in Ontario is being privatized through P3s, including Sault Ste. Marie's new hospital.

What are "Innovative Alternative Finance and Procurement Mechanisms" (AFMs)?

The government is cloaking its privatization plans by re-naming them from P3s (public private partnerships) to "innovative alternative (read private) finance and procurement mechanisms". All experts agree, AFMs are P3s. This is not the first time that these privatization plans have been re-named in an attempt to confuse and avoid public displeasure. In Britain, they were called "Private Finance Initiative" or PFI. Once they became deeply unpopular and the editors of the prestigious British Medical Association Journal called them "Perfidious Financial Idiocy", the government changed the name to "Public Private Partnerships" or "P3s".

According to the Toronto Star, "The Liberals publicly refer to P3s as "alternative financing and procurement projects." Government officials privately admit that they are virtually identical to the Tory initiatives." August 22, 2005 "Partnership hospital panned: Premier accused of breaking pledge" by Robert Benzie.

According to the P3 industry lobby, there are a number of models of P3s – ranging from design-build contracts, to full design-build-own-operate contracts. In the P3 hospitals in Ontario, a group of private corporations will finance the hospital and seek return on their investment through some combination of service privatization, land deals, technology and equipment deals, service charges, user fees and a mortgage or lease arrangement. The services at risk of privatization include – food, disinfection, clerical, patient records, portering, maintenance, security and others. The P3 deals are usually contained in extremely large long term contract, usually 30 – 60 or more years in length. This means that the hospital facility and property and services – excluding for the time being doctors and nurses – will be privatized and run for profit for the next generation unless we stop the P3 and win public financing for our hospital.

For fact sheets and reports on P3s see www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca and click on "Public Private Partnership"

Ontario Health Coalition 15 Gervais Drive, Suite 305, Toronto, Ontario M3C 1Y8 tel: 416-441-2502 fax: 416-441-4073 email: ohc@sympatico.ca www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca