| Posted by Winnipeg Chapter on December 13, 2009 at 8:51 PM |
On July 22 Winnipeg City Council voted 10 to 6 in favour of creating the new Municipal Utility Business Model, giving a private partner up to 49% controlling interest.
So, done deal?
NO WAY!
“It ain’t over ’till it’s over!!!”
Please consider joining and telling your friends about…
Protect Our Public Water and Waste Service. No to a Private Partner!
…facebook group.
The City is expected to choose and vote for which private partner they are planning to use by late January.
We intend to make our message clear before they do.
NO Private Partner!
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE CITY’S NEW WATER AND WASTE WATER PLAN?
1) A private partner would receive up to 49% control of our waste water service.
On page 37 of the Municipal Utility Business Plan released by the City on June 26, 2009 the third point under section 7.4.5 reads “The Utility (referring to the “100% City owned Utility”) will have a minimum 51% controlling interest in the strategic partnership.” Meaning that the private partner would get up to a 49% controlling interest. Right now the City has short listed three large multinational corporations to become the city’s private partner, each with a poor record of corporate responsibility. Private companies in order to lower overhead are often compelled to divert funds from public savings, system maintenance, worker wages or quality control. In effect they put profits over people.
2) No reason to change from the current system.
The City points to the provincially mandated upgrades to the waste water facilities as reason for the adopted plan. Yet this can be done without a private sector partner. The correlation between fixing the system and needing a private partner is completely arbitrary. Moreover, the predicted improvements accrued from the adoption of a private sector partner as forecasted in the Utility Business Plan are poorly substantiated and one-sided. The projected cost savings of creating the new Utility governance model are based on biased and selective information that overestimate the benefits of creating the Utility. Even if the Municipal Utility Planners would be able to manage the costs of the upgrade to the waste water treatment centers, inevitably Winnipeggers will be stuck with higher rates and/or depreciated service in order to turn a profit for the private partner.
3) The public was not properly consulted and the majority public opposition to the plan was ignored.
The City spent $250,000 on a flashy public relations campaign promoting the new Water and Waste governance plan. The survey of public opinion was extremely biased. Giving a people a list of motherhood choices and then interpreting the responses as support for the model is an insult to the participants’ intelligence. Furthermore, rushing the final vote on the model through in the middle of July when many people are on vacation is a classic way to minimize the public opposition. On July 22 Winnipeg’s elected officials voted 10-6 to create the new agency despite polls taken at that time suggesting 73% of Winnipeggers were not in favour of the city’s idea to find a private partner to help create and operate a separate city water and sewer utility.
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WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1) Sign the NEW Petition at (link no longer available)
2) Contact your MLA and let them know you are opposed to the City’s plan to adopt a private partner to operate a separate city water and sewer utility.
3) Tell your friends. A lot of people were away for summer holidays when the vote went through, so many people are uniformed.
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LEARN MORE:
VIDEO Maude Barlow speak at Blue Winnipeg (Link no longer available)
The Plan before amendments made on July 22, 2009 (link no longer available)
CCPA Fast Facts: Proposed Corporate Utility could be Costly to Winnipeggers
CCPA Myths and Facts about the City’s Business Plan for a Municipal Utility
Join the Council of Canadians Winnipeg Chapter Facebook Group