Privatization

This week, Public Interest Alberta Board Chair Larry Booi penned a letter to Hon. Brian Mason, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, congratulating him on his decision not to launch any new public-private partnerships pending a decision by executive council on their continued use.

"Alberta’s continuing care facilities have a patchwork of ownership models. While these facilities are all funded by public money, they are owned and operated either publicly, through Alberta Health Services and its subsidiaries (CapitalCare in Edmonton and Carewest in Calgary), or privately, by both non-profit organizations and for-profit corporations."

Public Interest Alberta would like to offer our congratulations to the University of Alberta's Parkland Institute on receiving a substantial grant for $2.5 million from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Along with an additional $2 million in matching funding from supportive partners and universities, the money will fund a six-year research project titled "Mapping the Power of the Carbon-Extractive Corporate Resource Sector."

"The Prentice government's pre-election budget would have resulted in larger class sizes, fewer students enrolling in post-secondary education, less capacity in our health care system, and seniors losing their drug benefits," said Joel French, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta."

"Every year for the past several years, the Alberta government’s budget documents have included a graph titled 'Alberta's Tax Advantage'. The graph shows how much revenue the government would raise if it had the same tax structure as each of Canada’s nine other provinces. The graph ought to be more appropriately titled 'Alberta’s Revenue Disadvantage.'"

EDMONTON—On Friday the federal government announced $1.53 billion for Calgary’s Green Line Light Rail Transit (LRT) project through PPP Canada Inc., which provides funding to projects via public-private partnerships (P3s).

"Public Interest Alberta is concerned that the same problems that have arisen in Edmonton over federal LRT funding, are now coming to Calgary. Joel French, Director of Communications and Campaigns is warning Calgary City Council that Ottawa could require the new Green Line to be run by private corporations instead of the municipal government."

In April 2015, Public Interest Alberta released a report entitled "A Just and Fair Alberta: Priorities for Change," which was designed to serve as a key resource for individuals and organizations in Alberta's 2015 provincial election.

EDMONTON—Public Interest Alberta is releasing A Fair and Just Alberta: Priorities for Change, designed to serve as a key resource for individuals and organizations in the coming provincial election.“The election presents a major opportunity for those who care about public services to make a difference in our province,” said Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. “It is important that we all take advantage of this chance to advocate effectively for much-needed revenue reform that will provide the foundation for much stronger public services, and to state clearly what should be the priorities for change.”

"Public Interest Alberta has taken on the family’s case, and said it will raise the issue at a meeting with the health minister on Wednesday. 'Other families have come forward with their powerful stories of what it feels like to be banned from a facility, and then not to have any due process to resolve that banning,' said Bill Moore Kilgannon, executive director of Public Interest Alberta."