Who Benefits from Privatization?

Premier Ford and the Conservative government continue showing Ontarians that they are more interested in privatization and creating profit opportunities for friends than in protecting public resources and services. They are planning to chop up sections of the environmentally essential Greenbelt, allowing wealthy developer friends (including some who attended Ford’s daughter’s ‘Stag and Doe’ party) to make millions in real estate deals. You can read about the Integrity Commissioner’s investigations into potential conflicts of interest over those deals:

Office of the Integrity Commissioner Interim Report – January 18, 2023

Office of the Integrity Commissioner Interim Report – March 16, 2023

At the same time, the Ford Conservatives have been holding back millions of dollars in health care funding, adding further pressure onto a health system still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than investing dollars into decent wages and working conditions to attract health care staff into the public sector, Ford has chosen to go the usual route: privatization. The Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA), the Ontario Health Coalition, and many other pro-public groups have condemned the government’s plan to shift surgeries out of hospitals into for-profit clinics. The move will cost millions more than delivering the surgeries within the public system and could leave vulnerable Ontarians paying for services, despite the Premier’s promises.

OSSTF/FEESO’s infographic, Privatization Playbook, lays out the steps privatizers consistently take in order to sell the public on privatization. It’s not a pretty process. The very first step is to find someone to blame for perceived problems with publicly delivered services. Through two rounds of collective bargaining with the Ford Government and Education Minister Stephen Lecce, the imposition of math tests for qualifying teachers, and years of last-minute announcements about curricula changes and pedagogy, OSSTF/FEESO members are all too familiar with the attacks and disrespect that have been heaped on education workers and teachers from kindergarten through post-secondary. At the same time, the government has systematically reduced funding for public education, adding to the pressure. The next step (step three in the Privatization Playbook) will be to propose a solution to solve all the problems that the government created. Again, the parallels with what’s happening in health care are painfully clear.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) have already documented how the government has intentionally underfunded both the health care and education system during an incredibly difficult time when the need for stability in health and education was paramount.

As part of OSSTF/FEESO’s fightback against privatization, we will continue working with allies to build support for public services. We will also continue producing and updating information resources for members to use and share. You can find the Privatization Playbook and other anti-privatization resources on the OSSTF/FEESO website.