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Articles on Privatization

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People protest outside the Tendercare Living Centre long-term-care facility in Scarborough, Ont. during the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2020. This LTC home was hit hard by the second wave of COVID-19. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Why for-profit homes won’t solve long-term care issues: Privatizing health services is a bad idea that just won’t go away

Privatization is an idea that — like a zombie —just won’t die. It’s re-emerging with calls to solve the long-term care crisis with for-profit care homes. Evidence refutes the same old arguments.
A worker cuts an electricity pole downed by Hurricane Fiona in Cayey, Puerto Rico, on Sept. 18, 2022. AP Photo/Stephanie Roja

Puerto Rico’s vulnerability to hurricanes is magnified by weak government and bureaucratic roadblocks

Hurricane Fiona will set back efforts to restore Puerto Rico that date back five years to Hurricane Maria. Two scholars explain how the island’s weak institutions worsen the impacts of disasters.
Signs direct the flow of student traffic at Kensington Community School amid the COVID-19 pandemic on Sept. 1, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Carlos Osorio

‘Pandemic pods’ may undermine promises of public education

The turn to private funding of education reduces the responsibility of governments to adequately fund schools and to ensure all children have access to high-quality education programming.
Alberta Minister of Health Tyler Shandro speaks during a press conference in Calgary on May 29, 2020. The Alberta government is proposing legislation to accelerate approvals of private clinics in order to get more surgeries done. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Unhealthy reforms: The dangers of Alberta’s plan to further privatize health-care delivery

Recent Alberta legislation increasing privatization in the health sector risks undermining the public health-care system, and will likely put profits over the public interest.
In 2017, Saskatchewan’s auditor general showed that a private pay MRI program actually increased wait times for scans rather than the promised reduction. Here, an MRI machine is prepared at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital on May 1, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Why private, for-profit health care is a terrible idea

A two-tier, for-profit health-care system will not end “hallway medicine” in Ontario or elsewhere; evidence from around the world shows that private payment increases wait times for the majority.
Puerto Rico’s power utility, PREPA, has been decimated by years of scarcity and bad management. But will privatizing it really turn the lights back on for Puerto Ricans? AP Photo/Carlos Giusti

Why privatizing Puerto Rico’s power grid won’t solve its energy problems

Many Puerto Ricans are happy to see their broke power utility sold off to whoever can get the lights turned back on. But privatizing the island’s energy grid may bring more problems than relief.
Ontarians got a taste of privatization in the 1990s, when the Conservative government of Mike Harris handed over the lucrative Highway 407 toll road in a 99-year lease for a fraction of its value.

Financiers are now controlling public works, much to the public’s confusion

Canadian governments aren’t completely selling off major public works, but their embrace of public-private “partnerships” is giving private financiers control of major infrastructure projects.

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