(rdnewsNOW file photo)

By Josh Hall | @Vancan19

part of $1.8 billion expansion

UCP, NDP butt heads on public-private model for Red Deer ambulatory care centre

Mar 12, 2024 | 4:33 PM

The Alberta NDP, in light of learning this week that the UCP intends to build a Red Deer ambulatory care centre using what’s known as the ‘P3 model’, says the current government is determined to privatize anything it can get its hands on.

Those were the words of MLA Jasvir Deol, infrastructure critic, who spoke on the Opposition’s behalf Tuesday alongside health critic Luanne Metz.

Ambulatory care is part of a $1.8 billion hospital expansion project, of which $810 million is set aside for over the next three years, as announced during the provincial budget unveiling last month.

‘P3’ refers to a Public-Private Partnership.

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“We know that P3s simply just do not work, especially for health care,” said Deol. “They result in horrible outcomes for the critical services Albertans rely on.”

Metz said privatization will only lead to more bureaucracy and red tape at Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre.

“The UCP’s failed lab privatization cost Albertans millions in wasted money and didn’t result in better or faster lab results,” she said. “The UCP’s failed DynaLIFE plan failed so miserably the UCP had to buy them out, costing Albertans more than $130 million.”

The evidence suggests the UCP should not move forward with a P3 plan, the NDP added.

“Albertans deserve public health care,” said Metz. “The UCP should cancel the P3 scheme and ensure Red Deer gets the public hospital that is so desperately needed.”

The group Friends of Medicare, meantime, questions why the government insists on using the P3 model despite, “repeated failures.”

“P3s aren’t innovative, they are a grift that funnels public health care funds into private profits,” said Chris Gallaway, executive director. “History has shown us time and time again that P3s end up costing more, they limit transparency over our health care, and they hand over our control of crucial public infrastructure. And when they fail, it’s our public health care system that has to step in to clean up the mess. The only winners are the corporations that get to walk away with big profits from our public tax dollars.”

Gallaway points to the UCP’s own abandoning of P3s in its approach to building schools, as reported by the CBC in December 2022.

“The track record is clear, yet this UCP government seems stubbornly unwilling to learn their lesson on the harms of using a Public-Private Partnership model to build public infrastructure,” said Gallaway. “Alberta is decades behind on building more hospital capacity and beds. We shouldn’t be wasting time with talk of expensive privatization schemes or Public-Private Partnerships. We need to get to work building and staffing much needed public health care infrastructure.”

But the Ministry of Infrastructure disagrees, saying in a statement to rdnewsNOW that P3s are a proven commodity demonstrated to provide schedule, cost and quality certainty.

“They are used across Canada, and around the world to successfully deliver health care projects because they can increase efficiency, encourage innovation, and improve quality for the right projects,” says Pete Guthrie, Infrastructure Minister.

“P3s in healthcare are not new. In fact, approximately 100 health-related projects have been constructed across the country using the P3 model. Our focus is on bringing value for money to Alberta taxpayers. We assess each project to determine the best delivery method, which, in the case of the ambulatory care building, is through a P3.”

Guthrie insists that by using P3, the government will avoid cost escalation through inflation and it may improve timelines.

“Regardless of the delivery method for the project phases, the facility will be owned by the Government of Alberta and will have one public operator, AHS, responsible for providing the healthcare that the people of Red Deer can rely on,” he says.

Guthrie says the NDP are opposing the P3 model for “purely ideological reasons.”

Alberta Infrastructure will be hosting a public information session March 14 to provide updates on the Red Deer Regional Hospital expansion project.

Project representatives will be at the session to answer the public’s questions on March 14 from 7-9 p.m. at the Westerner Park Chalet (4847A 19 Street).

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READ MORE

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