In light of the Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford’s leaky roof, the skyrocketing cost of the Regina Bypass, and the high cost of building and maintaining P3 schools, the NDP is calling on the government to prioritize public builds that hire and source locally, and to come clean about the real cost of their pet P3 projects.
"The Saskatchewan government should be harnessing our resources to build our schools, hospitals, roads and other infrastructure projects,” said NDP Leader Ryan Meili. “The Minister responsible for SaskBuilds was at the PNWER Summit today talking up our province’s experience with P3s, but the record simply does not back up the rhetoric.”
The facts are clear:
- the Sask. Party government is spending far more money per school to maintain P3 schools than other Saskatchewan schools;
- the Saskatchewan Hospital in North Battleford had to replace its leaking roof, tear out faulty insulation and contend with building delays;
- the Regina Bypass is now the most expensive stretch of flat road in Canadian history, with a price tag massively higher than the cost originally pitched to Saskatchewan residents;
- the Regina Bypass has also presented serious structural issues, and the foreign conglomerate being paid to manage it has a record of delayed responses to urgent issues like the Balgonie roundabout crisis.
“The Sask. Party government has used the P3 model to shield itself from transparency, accountability and oversight of major infrastructure projects, which is deeply concerning when we’re talking about billions of dollars of Saskatchewan people’s money at stake,” said NDP SaskBuilds Critic Cathy Sproule. “People deserve to know where and how the government is spending their money — that it is being spent responsibly, in a way that puts people first, instead of just benefitting their friends and donors.”