Monday's WFP had a cautionary piece by the head of the Parkland Institute about "corporatization" of city services.
Winnipeg's neoconservative mayor and his council junta have put the city on a path to having water and waste services delivered and controlled by a private-sector "partner."
Edmonton did the same thing to its water and electric utilities in the 1990s, passing control of those services to a company called Epcor. Now, writes Ricardo Acuna, Edmonton city council and Edmontonians generally have effectively no say in those vital public services.
"This loss of control is exacerbated by the fact that as a private business, all of the corporate utility's plans, dealings and major decisions are covered by protection of privacy legislation," he notes. "Operating as a private entity in a private marketplace, all strategic decisions are considered proprietary and as such are made beyond the oversight of the public at large."
He points out that the public interest is unimportant to profit-seeking firms. "A private corporation is bound by law to maximize return to its shareholder and cannot legally undertake any activities that will knowingly have a negative impact on its dividends. Where a city-managed and controlled utility can make strategic decisions to benefit the environment or the public interest even though it might lose money, a private corporation cannot."
Note to the Free Press: This is is what all the fuss was about last summer when people were protesting Mayor Katz's plan. Get it?
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
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2 comments:
I do have some experience with this Stimpson. The smart thing to do would be to run the privateers off but that won't happen becuase they are experts at getting local politicians to do what they want. A few bucks in campaign donations or other things carries more weight than any real cost/benefit analysis.
If it's a management contract what the private company will do is negotiate terms that hold it responsible for small maintanance and repairs. Say, under a $3,000 threshold or so. Of course then, instead of doing proper maintainance the privateers will allow equipment to break down or deteriorate so the cost is over their threshold and the municipality is liable.
I would guess this company wants a five year contract, depending on the size of the plant, probably 1 to 2.5 million a year in operating fees.
What the municiplaity will get is one or two employees fromk the privateers to "manage" the plant, while still paying the regular workers there. The privateers try and use less labor through layoffs as one of their cost savings benefits. This ends up comprimising plant security and of course, the maintainance is down to nil because they don't have the proper help to keep up with it.
Is the plant old? Over twenty years. They will make other promises about liability as well.
These people are good at convincing politicians, especially conservative ones who think they know business.
My apologies for the length of this comment.
No apologies necessary, Truth. It's so nice to see someone visiting my blog.
I fear the "corporatization" (really privatization) of water and waste services in Winnipeg is all but a done deal. We have municipal elections this fall but, even if a new crew gets in on city council, it'll be too late. We'll be stuck with the neocon water scheme.
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