[All] Fwd: CoC Guelph Update

[Peter Kofler]

Re. the bottom news item, P3 hospitals in Canada: apparently this is a much larger issue than just Canadian (see attached link) http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2010/11/22/the-uks-odious-debts/
They're called PFI's in the UK and just as in Canada, they're an apparently non-negotiable money conduit from taxpayers wallets into the coffers of corporations involved in the capitalization, servicing and (minimal) operations end of said deals. 
 
The aggregate amount of money payments being hemorrhaged in these deals is quite mindboggling (considering what the corporations are providing in return) and apparently there is little (legally) that can be done. As the CofC writeup says "....Hospitals are also stuck with those fixed payments to the consortium every year, meaning any cutbacks would have to come in other areas..."
 
It'll be interesting to see how long this private sector-imposed necrosis can prevail before the "patient" (the healthcare system) fractures or fails completely.

 


From: mill at continuum.org
To: all at gren.ca
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2010 21:40:26 -0500
Subject: [All] Fwd: CoC Guelph Update





Begin forwarded message:


From: coc guelph <e-list at coc-guelph.ca>
Date: November 29, 2010 9:37:14 PM GMT-05:00
To: coc guelph <coc.guelph at gmail.com>
Subject: CoC Guelph Update



Media Release: Canadian Civil Society Groups Participate in Caravans to Cancun Climate Talks
The Council of Canadians is currently in Cancun, Mexico for the UN climate negotiations taking place from Nov. 29-Dec. 10. While the last round of talks failed to produce a binding agreement, the Council of Canadians is working with allies, social justice organizations, environmental groups and thousands of concerned people as part of a burgeoning grassroots climate justice movement to demand “system change, not climate change.”
Click here to read more about our actions in Cancun and read the blogs that give so much information from day to day.  For example, 
SAN PEDRO - MINING
10:15 am - We are approaching the town of San Pedro and beginning to see some of the destruction caused by a Canadian company operating a gold and silver mine here. 
We are told that the company uses cyanide to separate the minerals from the rock and that this in turn is polluting the local water sources. 

12:45 pm - We have just concluded a several hour visit to San Pedro. 
As we walked the kilometre into the town (the road too small for the bus), local organizers held a banner and chanted, 'Water yes, cyanide no'. 
We were welcomed in a square - with music and kind words - by members of this community. They told us that NewGold removed the top of their mountain to get at the gold and silver. 

The mountain was as tied to their identity as a community, and the act could be considered, for example, akin to turning Lake Louise into a tailings impoundment area. 

NEWS: Canadian diplomats in DC worked with corporations to kill US climate legislation
Postmedia News reports that, “Canadian diplomats in Washington have quietly asked such oil-industry players as Exxon Mobil and BP to help ‘kill’ U.S. global-warming policies in order to ensure that ‘the oil keeps  a-flowing’ from Alberta into the U.S. marketplace…”
NEWS: Kavanagh compares Boat Harbour and Sandy Pond    
The St. John's Telegram reports that, "Ken Kavanaugh, a retired teacher from Bell Island, a Council of Canadians spokesman and chairman of the Sandy Pond Alliance ( which opposes using a 38 hectare lake for mine tailings in Long Harbour) says while the industries and times are different, there is a similarity with Boat Harbour -  the economic pressure placed on residents to compromise the environment for jobs" .


UPDATE: Protecting the Independence watershed in Dolores Hidalgo
A community gathering has just concluded this Sunday afternoon at a park in the Mexican town of Dolores Hidalgo.

NEWS: Enviropig and supersized salmon may be first GM animals allowed into food system
In a largely pro-biotechnology lead article recently, the Globe and Mail reports that, “Under development for more than a decade, the University of Guelph’s 20 Enviropigs are close behind a Canadian-made supersized salmon in a race to become the first genetically modified animals allowed into the food system.”P3 Hospitals in Canada.


The National Post reports that, "Government contracts that see private companies finance, build and partially run new hospitals appear to be quietly becoming the norm across Canada."
"Industry statistics show that 55 privately developed health-care facilities...have opened or are in the works in five provinces. The list includes 38 in Ontario... From hospitals to new emergency departments and nursing homes, there are also nine P3 projects in B.C., five in Quebec, two in New Brunswick and one in Alberta." Examples include the Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre in B.C., a mental-health centre in Saint John, N.B, and Toronto’s historic Women’s College Hospital.
"Private companies do not actually own the facilities. They raise the money, design the structure, construct it and often manage at least the 'hard' services like climate-control and building upkeep over the term of the contract, usually 30 years. Sometimes they also supply the medical equipment and run services like laundry, housekeeping and catering. In exchange, the group gets a yearly payment from the hospital. Public hospital administrators manage the actual medical services."
"Critics say...that the arrangements are often not as advantageous as they are made to look. A 2008 analysis by the Ontario auditor general concluded that the Brampton Civic Hospital...would end up costing almost $200-million more as a P3 than if it had been built the traditional way. In a report this summer, the Quebec auditor general concluded that private-public projects at two Montreal hospitals would not cost less and might be more expensive than if built by government. ...Hospitals are also stuck with those fixed payments to the consortium every year, meaning any cutbacks would have to come in other areas..."
"Once P3 hospitals are up and running, support staff tend to be lower paid than the public-sector norm, said Mary Catharine McCarthy of the Canadian Union of Public Employees in Ottawa."
Early in the new year the Council of Canadians will be hiring a health care campaigner and re-dedicating ourselves to defending and expanding public health care in Canada.
The National Post article is at http://www.nationalpost.com/news/features/Private+sector+role+hospitals+longer+taboo/3879909/story.html.



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