Articles
Multimedia - Podcasts/Video/Radio · 11th March 2010
PUBLIC SAYS "NO P3 SEWAGE TREATMENT"
Victoria, British Columbia
On February 25th & March 10th, 2010 over 40 citizens made presentations to the Core Area Liquid Waste Management Committee - all in favour of PUBLIC sewage treatment. At five minutes each, these four presentations from Feb 25th will give you a quick overview of what's at stake:
First, from February 25th,
Here’s Greg Baynton, President of the Vancouver Island Construction Association.
“The CRD is considering how to procure…the largest capital project in Vancouver Island’s history. If the domestic and local construction community is excluded from the opportunity to participate…it will have a long-term detrimental impact on the industry and the people who have traditionally worked in it and lived on Vancouver Island.”
Listen to Greg Baynton
Next, Jenny Farkas, an independent businesswoman who recently created her own website www.smellsfishy.ca outlining some of the myths surrounding P3s.
“P3s are like a really well-executed magic trick. The P3 model puts up a smoke screen that hides the fact that risk – and especially environmental risk – is not actually transferred to the private sector, and the magic trick also uses sleight-of-hand accounting to disguise the true cost to the public ledger.”
Listen to Jenny Farkas.
AND FROM March 10th, here are Kim Manton and Craig Ashborne:
Kim Manton – on how choosing “public” sewage treatment will enhance people’s faith in their elected representatives:
“Many people don’t even know what the CRD is, let alone what procurement means, but I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that once they understand what privatization means to their community, the citizens of the CRD overwhelmingly want the system to be public.”
“This is your opportunity to show people…that their voices and their actions matter. Alice Walker said that ‘the most common way people give up their power is thinking that they don’t have any.’ You have an opportunity to reconnect citizens to their power and to let them know they have been heard.”
Listen to Kim Manton
Craig Ashbourne, on the fallacy of “risk transfer” in P3 contracts:
"In the late 1990s there was a spill in the harbour in Hamilton…180 million liters of raw sewage was spilled into that harbor, and the corporation that was running it (the sewage treatment plant) surprisingly went bankrupt…and what happened was…the taxpayers of the city of Hamilton ended up having to foot the bill for the clean up of that raw sewage spill. The risk, in fact, hadn’t been transferred off the city; it came back to bite every one of those taxpayers when that spill happened."
Listen to Craig Ashbourne
To view videos of all the presentations made on February 25th, CLICK HERE
Contact the Decision Makers on the CRD Board, which has the final say about whether or not sewage treatment is "public" or "private."
On February 25th & March 10th, 2010 over 40 citizens made presentations to the Core Area Liquid Waste Management Committee - all in favour of PUBLIC sewage treatment. At five minutes each, these four presentations from Feb 25th will give you a quick overview of what's at stake:
First, from February 25th,
Here’s Greg Baynton, President of the Vancouver Island Construction Association.
“The CRD is considering how to procure…the largest capital project in Vancouver Island’s history. If the domestic and local construction community is excluded from the opportunity to participate…it will have a long-term detrimental impact on the industry and the people who have traditionally worked in it and lived on Vancouver Island.”
Listen to Greg Baynton
Next, Jenny Farkas, an independent businesswoman who recently created her own website www.smellsfishy.ca outlining some of the myths surrounding P3s.
“P3s are like a really well-executed magic trick. The P3 model puts up a smoke screen that hides the fact that risk – and especially environmental risk – is not actually transferred to the private sector, and the magic trick also uses sleight-of-hand accounting to disguise the true cost to the public ledger.”
Listen to Jenny Farkas.
AND FROM March 10th, here are Kim Manton and Craig Ashborne:
Kim Manton – on how choosing “public” sewage treatment will enhance people’s faith in their elected representatives:
“Many people don’t even know what the CRD is, let alone what procurement means, but I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that once they understand what privatization means to their community, the citizens of the CRD overwhelmingly want the system to be public.”
“This is your opportunity to show people…that their voices and their actions matter. Alice Walker said that ‘the most common way people give up their power is thinking that they don’t have any.’ You have an opportunity to reconnect citizens to their power and to let them know they have been heard.”
Listen to Kim Manton
Craig Ashbourne, on the fallacy of “risk transfer” in P3 contracts:
"In the late 1990s there was a spill in the harbour in Hamilton…180 million liters of raw sewage was spilled into that harbor, and the corporation that was running it (the sewage treatment plant) surprisingly went bankrupt…and what happened was…the taxpayers of the city of Hamilton ended up having to foot the bill for the clean up of that raw sewage spill. The risk, in fact, hadn’t been transferred off the city; it came back to bite every one of those taxpayers when that spill happened."
Listen to Craig Ashbourne
To view videos of all the presentations made on February 25th, CLICK HERE
Contact the Decision Makers on the CRD Board, which has the final say about whether or not sewage treatment is "public" or "private."