Purchase for Profit

"Purchase for Profit makes a major contribution to our understanding of how public-private partnerships (P3s) have proliferated in Canada despite serious shortcomings. Whiteside situates her trenchant critique of these projects within the broader context of neoliberal privatization. Those teaching, researching, or implementing P3s will find it especially useful and provocative." -- John Loxley, Department of Economics, University of Manitoba "Purchase for Profit offers a useful analysis of public-private partnerships and the ways in which they have been promoted in spite of their clear problems. Whiteside's four case studies provide important illustrations of these, brought together in ways not available elsewhere." -- Pat Armstrong, Department of Sociology, York University

Purchase for Profit will be important for those studying public policy in any of the areas in which public-private partnerships are now being adopted.

Since the start of the twenty-first century, Canadian provinces have increasingly begun turning to the private sector to finance and construct large-scale infrastructure projects. From a critical public policy perspective, the danger of these public-private partnerships (P3s) is that they are more than just new ways to deliver public infrastructure. They are neoliberal projects that privatize and corporatize the basis of public services.

Analyzing four Canadian P3 hospital projects, Heather Whiteside argues that P3s not only fail to fulfill the promises made by their proponents but also compromise public control of health policy, outcomes, and future plans. Yet, despite these disadvantages, the use of P3s is being normalized and expanded in BC and Ontario through capital planning frameworks and special government agencies that support and encourage P3 projects. Based on extensive interviews with academic experts, union representatives, provincial government decision-makers, and private sector partners, Purchase for Profit will be important for those studying public policy in any of the areas in which P3s are now being adopted.