Tarnished Yet Tenacious: Examining the Track Record and Future of Public-Private Partnership Hospitals in Canada

  • Heather Whiteside
Chapter
Part of the International Political Economy Series book series (IPES)

Abstract

Public—private partnerships (P3s) with the for-profit private sector first emerged in Canada in the mid-1990s and have been steadily growing in popularity ever since. More recently, proliferation since the mid-2000s has been sustained largely through infrastructure projects developed within provincial health sectors. By 2011, P3 hospitals accounted for half to three-quarters of all P3 projects in British Columbia (BC) and Ontario respectively, the Canadian provinces most enthusiastic for P3s (see Partnerships BC n.d.; Infrastructure Ontario n.d.).1 With large hospital re/development in particular, P3s are now the principal way in which these infrastructure projects and their accompanying support services are delivered. While the rise of P3s is a global phenomenon, which is in no way unique to Canada, specificity when evaluating this policy matters. By focusing on Canadian P3 hospitals, we are able to uncover how global neoliberal processes operate at the ground level (in the form of particular P3 projects) and how this unfolds within a specific sector (health care). In so doing it becomes evident that location-and sector-specific conditions shape the implementation of larger neoliberal forces.

Keywords

British Columbia Private Partnership Livelihood Change Social Reproduction Public Health Care System 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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© Heather Whiteside 2014

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  • Heather Whiteside

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