From the equality of rights springs identity of our highest interests; you cannot subvert your neighbor's rights without striking a dangerous blow at your own. Carl Schurz

Thursday, July 20, 2017

Of airports and accountability

It seems the Trudeau Liberals are intent on privatising our airports  which is a disastrous idea but I want to talk about something else today, accountability or more precisely the lack of it.

The Liberals may or may not end up selling our airports to the private sector, however no matter which way they decide to go the issue of accountability will remain. At every turn so far in this process the Liberals have thrown up roadblocks to keep information from the public.

First they hired  Credit Suisse an investment bank that owns and operates privatised airports and recommends them to their clients as reliable money makers to study the issue. Gee I wonder what advice they supplied the government. Which brings us to the issue of accountability, the Liberals in awarding the contract agreed to a confidentiality clause so not only will we never know what advice Credit Suisse provided the government but we are also barred from knowing how much we paid for that advice.

Now it has been revealed that Canada Development Investment Corp signed an open-ended, per-diem deal with PricewaterhouseCoopers and has retained outside legal advisers to help with any sales which also include the same confidentially riders.The Canada Development Investment Corp if you remember was the Crown corp involved in the Saudi arms deal. Oh and by the way the government couldn't even be bothered to announce this latest series of contracts.

So I ask a simple question how can the government be accountable to the people when we are denied the information we need to do so. But then it seems to me that making it impossible for us to judge for ourselves whether we are receiving value for our money or even if as seems the game is rigged is exactly what the government is up to here

7 comments:

  1. yes. And moreover, the trudeau Liberals never campaigned on privatization & selling assets.

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    1. No they instead ran on using low interest rates and deficits to invest in public infrastructure. Perhaps their worst betrayal next to electoral reform

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  2. spot on, keep on this. I've already done one episode on the "new" P3 Bank and port of entry privatization, I'm sure I will do more

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  3. Absolutely Glen We must get loud, very loud if we are to stop this the largest sell off of public assets in our history

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  4. The very fact that this is being done in secret tells people all they need to know about what the much-touted Trudeau transparency is really worth.

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    1. They have proven to be even more secretive than their predecessors

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