Barlow speaking in North Battleford last night. Photo by Tria Donaldson.
Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow spoke against a proposed public-private partnership (P3) hospital in Saskatchewan last night.
The Brad Wall provincial government wants to build the P3 hospital in North Battleford, a city located about 130 kilometres north-west of Saskatoon. The hospital would have 188 beds for mental health patients as well as an adjoining 96 cell correctional facility. The government is seeking proposals from three groupings of for-profit companies. The consortium chosen would design, build, finance and maintain the P3 hospital.
Barlow says, “The hospital plans are part of a broader push to privatize public health care in Saskatchewan. Whether in Brad Wall’s latest musings about private MRIs on social media, or in his government’s damaging moves to privatize long-term care facilities, laundry services, surgeries and diagnostic services, there’s no room for profit in our public health care system. Privatization hurts patients and communities by eroding access to quality care, and endangering good jobs.”
Council of Canadians Board member Pam Beattie tweeted Barlow’s comments at the public forum that, “P3 hospital a bigger threat with CETA [the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement] because we cannot go back – corporate interests in trade agreements”, “P3’s suck up public resources for private profits”, and “There have been P3 reversals all across the country I because they cost more deliver less. We can win”.
The other speakers last night included Paul Moist, the national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Simon Enoch, director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Saskatchewan, and Len Taylor, a former minister of health in Saskatchewan. Moist says, “Saskatchewan residents are in danger of paying more and getting less with this P3 hospital.” Enoch comments, “Key financial details of P3 projects like the North Battleford hospital are kept under close wraps – including the all-important calculations about who shoulders the risk.”
The provincial government says the consortium will be chosen by the summer of 2015 and that the hospital will open in 2018.
