It's not a P3, it's a P4: a Public-Private Partnership Problem

More trouble at Windsor's public private partnership (P3) long term care (LTC) project on the old Grace Hospital site. This is the long delayed LTC project that is driving up the bed backup at local hospitals.

After much delay, the Ontario Minster of Health and Long Term Care had announced the private developer had come through -- on the (supposedly) final day of the deadline

But, the Windsor Star reports that eleven days later, the guy hired to demolish parts of the building left and took his cranes with him. He said he hadn't been paid.

The Minister then told the Star that "this issue has nothing to do with the developer's ability to continue to move forward with the project. This is an issue between the contractor and subcontractor."

But the Star reports the owner of the cranes, was pretty clear that wasn't the problem. "I haven't been paid, and the job's not started. So I'm moving my equipment out." The equipment had been there for seven months, and he had never been paid. The developer did not return the Star's calls.

So, on Thursday, the government announced another deadline (Friday) for the developer to get financing in place. After an hour of looking over the documents submitted , the government stripped the developer of the contract. Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said they were "nowhere near" sufficient.

Duncan acknowledged that there has been a "horrendous cost" to the health care system and the region's seniors who were waiting for long term care beds to become available. "This contract has been completely violated," Duncan said.

Government's usually justify the extra costs associated with P3s by arguing they transfer risk to the private sector (and then make us pay heavily for it).

Ha! In this case, Duncan justified the (long) delay before the final cancellation of the contract by arguing that the government was trying to avoid being sued by the developer! "We had to go extra mile to insure that he would not have a case against the province," Duncan pleaded.

The project was supposed to be completed over a year ago. The project hasn't even begun: the government is now re-starting the bidding process.

Also on Friday, the government announced a $100 billion, ten year program to expand public facilities, with even more projects to be done through public-private partnerships.

Why not? It's only time and treasure.

Comments

More spending on new hospitals and new beds? Nope

Hospital funding: There is something off about the provincial government's Budget claims on hospital capital funding (funding to build and renovate hospital beds and facilities). For what it is worth (which is not that much, given the long time frame the government cites), the province claims it will increase hospital capital spending over the next 10 years from $11 billion to $20 billion – or on average to about $2 billion per year. But, this is just a notional increase from the previous announcement of future hospital capital spending. Moreover, even if we did take this as a serious promise and not just a wisp of smoke, the government's own reports shows they have actually funded hospital infrastructure about $3 billion a year over the 2011/12-2015/16 period. So this “increase” is really a decrease from past actual spending. Even last year's (2016-17) hospital capital funding increase was reported in this Budget at $2.3 billion - i.e. about ...

Ford government fails to respond to 72% increase in COVID inpatient days, deepening the capacity crisis

COVID infections continue to drive up hospital costs and inpatient hospitalizations in Ontario. For the most recent fiscal year (April 1, 2022- March 31, 2023) hospital stays related to COVID cost $1.221 billion, according to new CIHI data. This is about 4% of total hospital spending, creating a very significant new cost pressure beyond the usual pressures of population growth, aging, inflation, and rising utilization. Costs for COVID related hospitalizations increased 22.2% in Ontario in 2022/23 from the previous fiscal year, rising from $999 million to $1.221 billion. That rise is particularly notable as the OMICRON spike of late 2021 and early 2022 had passed by the the 2022/23 fiscal year. The $222 million increase in COVID hospitalization costs came in the same year as the Ford government cut special COVID funding and, in fact, cut total hospital funding by $156 million. In total, there were 60,653 COVID hospitalizations...

The hospital crisis: No capacity, no plan, no end

While Canada has achieved universal public healthcare coverage, that does not mean conservative forces have given up trying to erode that coverage and expand corporate care where it does not currently exist. The battle has become particularly intense in Ontario under the Ford Progressive Conservative government, which is implementing serious cuts to the level of care and moving to bring in for-profit mini-hospitals. Inadequate Staﬃng. Less and less of hospital spending is on staff. Employee compensation as a share of hospital expenditures has consistently shrunk in Ontario. This is not some immutable law of hospital development. It is in stark contrast with the rest of Canada, where compensation has become a larger share and now accounts for 67.1%. Hospitals in provinces other than Ontario now have 18 percent more staﬀ per capita than hospitals in Ontario. Overall, if Ontario had the same staﬃng capacity as the other provinces and territories, there would be another...

Defend Public Healthcare

Search This Blog