Ministers want to examine private ownership of public schools

Three cabinet ministers want to take a second look at having the private sector build and lease new schools in Alberta to catch up on the backlog of needed construction.

Under what is called a P3, or public-private partnership, school construction would still be paid for by the government, but the school would be privately owned and then leased back to the taxpayers.

It's an idea the Alberta government has rejected in the past.

Education Minister Ron Liepert said he wants to look at private ownership of public schools, while Infrastructure Minister Luke Ouellette says if the circumstances are right, he's a proponent of P3 projects.

Finance Minister Lyle Oberg is also onboard, saying Monday that the advantage of the P3 model is that if labour and constructioncosts spiral afterthe company takes on a project, they are on the hook for the extra costs, not the province.

"The key thing here is we need some schools, we need some infrastructure, and it's how best to put it out there so that we can shield consumers and Albertans from these escalating costs."

Labour critic says P3s costly

D'Arcy Lanovaz, the Alberta president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, doesn't support P3s, arguing governments have paid for cost overruns on such projects in the past.

"We certainly need new schools, but we definitely don't need P3s," he said.

"Alberta's in an enviable position. We've got the finance, we have the money so financially it certainly makes sense [to build our own schools]."

Lanovaz said Nova Scotia is an example of why schools should not be built using the P3 model and he wants Alberta to learn from Nova Scotia's mistake.

Nova Scotia ended P3 construction program

Nova Scotia dismantleda controversial P3 school construction program in 2000, calling it a failure for the money.

At the time, the Progressive Conservative government said the cost of school construction under the P3 process spiralled out of control because the previous Liberal government didn't set building standards or require accountability.

In 2003, an arbitrator ruled that the company that built 11 schools under the P3 programhad the right to collect some of the revenue generated by the schools and charge groups to use the schools after hours.