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Consider all service delivery options

Published on 2008-04-28 by in Saint John Politics

Today, my Letter to the Editor appeared in the Telegraph-Journal. Read it below:

During the first candidates’ debate it was disappointing to hear most of the candidates dismiss the option of public-private partnerships in service delivery. Yet ironically, these same candidates want to reduce the high taxes paid by all citizens.

If the future council is to address the issue of high taxes, consideration of all models of service delivery is required to assess the best value for taxpayers’ dollars. This means having the intestinal fortitude to weigh the value of traditionally operated public systems against partnership models with the private sector.

Private sector delivery systems are known to be highly efficient. Service delivery operated by the public sector with unionized workers must be able to demonstrate their competitiveness if they wish to be the sole purveyors of public service. All service delivery must be performance based and accountable.

Unfortunately, the true facts and reasons why public partnerships should be considered are clouded by the rhetoric promoted, for the most part, by the unionized public work force. For instance, fear mongering about losing control and ownership of the water supply is absolutely misleading.

Moncton contracts the treatment of drinking water to a private sector company. Moncton maintains control and ownership of the water. Moncton’s citizens pay $650 per year for fully treated water. Saint Johners pay $696 per year. This is the perfect illustration of why candidates should take a page out of Councillor Stephen Chase play book and thoroughly evaluate all options of service delivery in the best interests of the public.

Shawn Peterson
Saint John

I’m really glad that it was printed, and I am also glad that Stephen Chase has been so strong in his fight for the city to look at all options before spending our money!

I’d highly recommend checking out his website: http://stephenchase.ca and his Facebook group for the latest information on the campaign!

 
3 Comments  comments 
  • DerekB

    I don’t understand why we need to outsource water?

    I found the company that manages the Moncton water supply – it’s now Siemens, a multinational, well respected corporation. (Despite a brief collusion with the Nazi’s in the 30′s, they’ve been relatively clean).

    Why can’t we simply outsource the construction of the project to Siemens and include customary things such as project management, training, etc to have the local water staff involved as well in the running of it?

    Outsourcing water operations don’t always go rosy – there are a lot of examples on a quick google search of outsourcing having gone bad. And these are typically long-term projects.

  • http://saintjohnshawn.com Shawn

    Hi Derek,

    The main goal of this article is to raise the issue that special interest groups and unions are fear-mongering our candidates into only looking at one option – theirs.

    It makes sense to look at all options before making a decision, especially since we (the taxpayers) will be paying for it no matter which way it goes.

    The Moncton example is simply that – an example of how a city went from having water woes to leading in water quality. Not to mention that they did it at a lower cost.

    To not look into how they did this, how they wrote their contracts, how they did this so successfully, would be a shame!

  • Mike

    That is exactly what I was telling one of the candidates in my Ward. Look at the taxes we pay in this City!! Does anyone actually feel city staff are efficient in service delivery?? Council owes it to the taxpayers of Saint John to look at P3′s openly and honestly instead of hiding behind cheap rhetoric.

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