Here is Canada, we have had enough situations over the years to know what can happen when privatization prevails. There was the tainted water Walkerton disaster. There were many deaths in for-profit nursing homes during the COVID crisis. Let's face it. When investors enter such sectors, they expect and demand profits, often at the expense of safety, staffing, and, worst of all, the people these utilities and facilities serve.
Given that the Carney government seems to be pursuing a course of privatization, at least in terms of national airports, we need to be reminded that those who invest in our assets are motivated only by one imperative: stakeholder profit.
Although the following story is from the United States, it serves as a sobering reminder that the cost of privatization may be one too high to pay.
Hey come on. What's wrong with a bit of privatization or a private–public partnership.
ReplyDeleteLook at what the experts say:
George Bernard Shaw The Doctor's Dilemma
That any sane nation, having observed that you could provide for the supply of bread by giving bakers a pecuniary interest in baking for you, should go on to give a surgeon a pecuniary interest in cutting off your leg, is enough to make one despair of political humanity.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel on contracts to the lowest bidder:
"...You are holding out a premium to the man who will make you the most flattering promises. It is quite obvious that the man who has the least reputation at stake, or who has most to gain by temporary success, and least to lose by the consequences of disappointment, must be the winner in such a race." (Pudney, John. Brunel and his World. Thames and Hudson, London, 1974.)
Thank you for the excerpts, Anon. They are most apt.
DeleteThanks. I like both but in many cases I think Shaw has it. I think there are many instances when free enterprise makes excellent sense. In others, free enterprise is an utterly insane idea.
DeleteOn the other hand reflecting Brunel, one US astronaut is supposed to have said, "All I can think of is that this thing has been built by the lowest bidder".