Sometimes, the obvious overrules dogma

On this morning's Calgary Sun, the headline reads "P3 Hospital Canned".

Now, I'm not essentially opposed to the notion of a P3 - there are certainly legitimate cases where the private sector can make and operate a building more efficiently than the government could.

Hospitals are something else. They are highly specialized buildings, built to precisely one purpose - caring for the sick. As buildings, they don't convert into other roles terribly easily. One only has to look at the Holy Cross Hospital in Calgary. Closed in the early 1990s, there were many suggestions for what to do with it - convert it into offices; make condos out of it; turn it into a homeless shelter. None of these has come to pass, in fact, the end result has been that the building has become host to a series of medical clinics.

The practical reality is that hospitals get built, and they get used as hospitals until the building is no longer viable. Period. Converting it to another purpose is at best a bad joke, or wishful thinking. I'm glad to see the CHR has woken up and realized that a private interest building the hospital won't work. A private interest wants to make money out of it - therefore, they are going to take shortcuts on implementation costs; the lease will be structured to ensure that they make a solid profit over and above the life cycle of the building. But what happens when toxic mold starts growing? When a flaw in the ventilation system propogates an airborne illness? Someone will bear that cost, and you can bet that any private interest isn't going to take that risk. They will likely plead poverty and try to get the government to pay for it - either way, we the taxpayer is on the hook.

This is a slap in the face to the dogma that the Klein government has been advocating. P3 's are no more an innovative solution than a sinking bond fund would be new. Both have their uses and validity. It is necessary that we recognize when it is reasonable for taxpayers to bear a cost, and when the private enterprise interests really do bring value to the table.

Blind adherence to an economic or political ideology is a good way to create situations that are doomed to failure.