Press Progress reports that buried in the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB)’s annual report is praise for the water system in the town of Mapleton in Wellington County, Ontario as an example of a good private-public partnership (P3). The CIB report says there is “potential” for similar privatization schemes across the country.
In one P3 example, in 1998, Hamilton, Ontario signed a 10-year P3 deal for their water systems. Soon after, residents woke up to 135 million litres of raw sewage spilling into the harbour, and flooded basements and businesses. Hamilton’s water service workforce was cut in half, project costs ballooned, and the water contract changed hands four times.