Like an uninvited guest, privatization of public services is hanging in the background of city council discussions on this year's budget. Some councillors have talked about it, but they aren't yet ready to give privatization a place on Yellowknife's public agenda.
Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Dec 01/00) - It's no surprise that councillors are approaching the issue with care.
Privatization is a contentious topic and triggers strong reaction from both naysayers and advocates.
Long-time Yellowknife resident and self-proclaimed watchdog of city politics Lauren McKiel presented council with eight suggestions last week on how the city could save money. His three main proposals called for the contracting out of some public works services as the surest ways of saving taxpayer's dollars.
Most city councillors said they'd consider McKiel's suggestion. At Wednesday night's budget committee meeting Coun. Alan Woytuik said he'd like to see an external review done on public works to explore the possibility of contracting out more services.
"A review is not complete without a look at all ways of providing services," said Woytuik.
"Privatization is one area the other is method of operation," he said.
Coun. Kevin O'Reilly rejected the notion on principal saying he would never support privatization as long as he was on council.
"There is no strong evidence that privatization will save money," said O'Reilly.
And he's right. The jury is still out on how effective this move will be at cutting costs and making public bodies more efficient.
Janet Robinson, risk manager for Yellowknife contracting firm RTL Robinson Enterprises Ltd. says it would take a lot of time and money to figure out whether privatizing some of the city's public works services would cut costs at all.
"Without examining job specifics and budget concerns one cannot say for sure (if it saves money)," said Robinson adding that in other parts of the country privatization has proven to be economical. Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce president John Ondrack said contracting out would bring its own pit-falls that have little to do with economics.
"Privatization does not necessarily mean better standards and it could test the public's tolerance on quality and speed," said Ondrack.
"Contractors do work on their own schedules," he said.
City of Yellowknife public works director Gary Craig says privatizing aspects of public works could hurt the department because services complement each other.
"The guys who plow the snow also use the back-hoe in case of a water-break," he said.
According to Craig, contracting could restrict the department's response time to emergencies and hurt the department's flexibility.
"We can request different things from our guys and we don't need to worry about contract limitations," he said adding, "it makes my job a lot easier."
According to Jean-Francois Deflauriers, president of Public Services Alliance of Canada -- the union which represents the city's public works employees -- privatization cripples the public's democratic control of their services.
"The public has to have direct control of the services the city provides," said Deflauriers, "put a contractor in the middle and it alienates the public."
For now the city has made no major moves to privatize services but according to city senior administrator Max Hall it is always an option in the quest to get the biggest bang for the taxpayer's buck.
" A year doesn't go by without a review of a different area (of the city's operations)," said Hall.
"It's part of the business to save taxpayer's money," he said.
For more coverage on privatization please see A5.
