Ontario Health Coalition:
Approaching $1 Billion in Cost Overruns at Privatized P3
Hospitals: Coalition Demands Audit, Moratorium on P3 Privatization
The P3 privatization of Ontario's hospitals exploded into
the election campaign with yesterday's announcement that the new Sarnia hospital will cost $214 million, more than 50 per cent more
than the projected cost of $140 million. This puts the total cost
overruns for Ontario's privatized P3 hospitals climbing towards $1
billion.
Every one of the privatized P3 hospitals is late by months or even
years.
The Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) is calling for McGuinty to
promise a moratorium on all P3 privatization until the signed deals
have been audited by the provincial auditor.
Cost overruns to date:
(All costs the most conservative figures. We have used capital costs
alone, excluding interest, service privatization and equipment
deals. With those additional costs calculated in, the privatized P3
costs are much higher.)
|
Community |
Projected Costs |
Final Costs (After Negotiations Concluded with For-Profit
Consortium) |
Cost Overrun |
|
Brampton |
$350 million |
$650 million |
$300 million |
|
North Bay |
$218 million |
$551 million |
$333 million |
|
Royal Ottawa |
$100 million |
$146 million |
$46 million |
|
Sarnia |
$140 million |
$214 million |
$74
million |
|
SaultSte. Marie |
$200 million |
$408 million |
$208 million |
TOTAL IN COST OVERRUNS ON CAPITAL ALONE: $961 million
Current estimates for the P3 hospital projects out for tender in St.
Catharines and Woodstock are still secret.
"This has to be Dalton McGuinty's most expensive broken promise from
the last election," said Dora Jeffries, OHC co-chair. "The whole
justification for privatization was that P3s supposedly came in 'on
time' and 'in budget'. But every single privatized P3 hospital is
vastly over budget and every single one is late."
"The privatized P3 hospital policy is now proven to be a house of
cards.
While it has enriched a host of well-connected business interests,
it has no underlying financial justification and it runs counter to
the public interest," Jeffries said.
"The McGuinty government has engaged in an inexcusable level of
secrecy and obfuscation every step of the way," noted Natalie Mehra,
OHC director.
"McGuinty has managed to keep secret all financial details of the
deals in Sault Ste. Marie, Sarnia, North Bay, St. Catharines and
Ottawa until after this provincial election. Despite major media
attention, McGuinty has never explained why the cost increases have
been so massive in every town."
"Every McGuinty candidate and MPP is repeating the script that these
hospitals are public, to obscure the level of new privatization
introduced by his government," Mehra said. "The government has
actually paid consulting firms to conduct essentially fake 'Value
for Money' comparisons in which none of the government's figures are
actually tested, and is now claiming that these are audits. In fact,
the provincial auditor has not looked at a single one of these
privatized P3 deals and no independent party has tested the
government's figures."
"If there's nothing to hide, then Dalton McGuinty should not have
any problem with a public audit and full public disclosure about the
cost overruns," Jeffries said. "In fact, in the interests of sound
governance and public accountability the P3 privatization policy
must be revisited and subject to a full review before any more deals
are signed."
In St. Catharines, Sarnia and Sault Ste. Marie, more than 18,000
people have signed pledge forms to make the P3 privatization of
their hospitals a key election issue. More than 300 doctors and
nurses have sent letters to McGuinty to ask him to stop the P3
hospitals. Over 80,000 Ontarians have voted against P3 privatization
of their local hospitals in community plebiscites.
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/For further information: Ontario Health Coalition, (416) 230-6402
(cell)/
