Recent concerns from the public sector have some wondering if it’s time to assess the P3 model as the way of building public infrastructure in the province.
That according to Simon Enoch, Director of the Saskatchewan office for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Enoch spoke about his research at the 2020 Canadian Union of Public Employees Saskatchewan convention, saying they spoke with 18 public sector employees at various P3 work places.
P3’s in the province are long-term performance-based agreements between government and business to deliver public infrastructure.
The workers raised concerns with the degree of confusion and uncertainty of responsibility, the inefficiency of the P3 model which saw public workers remedying mistakes and due concerns due to design and construction flaws the workers said caused frustrating environments that sometimes compromised their health and safety.
Recent P3 projects include new schools in Willowgrove and Hampton Village, and the Saskatchewan Hospital in North Battleford.