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Health & Fitness Health Care Issues

Purchase for Profit

Public-Private Partnerships and Canada's Public Health Care System

by (author) Heather Whiteside

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Jul 2015
Category
Health Care Issues, Public Affairs & Administration, General, General, General
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781442628755
    Publish Date
    Jul 2015
    List Price
    $42.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781442651203
    Publish Date
    Aug 2015
    List Price
    $86.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442624641
    Publish Date
    Jul 2015
    List Price
    $32.95

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Description

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.

About the author

Heather Whiteside is an associate professor of political science at the University of Waterloo and a fellow at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. She is a political economist with expertise in Canadian political economy, economic geography, theories of the state and capitalism, and public policy, demonstrated through a wide range of publications on issues such as public ownership, privatization, property relations, fiscal studies, and state capitalism.

Heather Whiteside's profile page