User:CarsonAB/sandbox

The topic that I have decided to write about is “Public-private partnerships in Canada (P3)”.  This is a stub of a current article in Wikipedia (Public-private Partnerships) that has a lot of potential to be expanded on. Rather than having a short stub on this topic, a full article would be beneficial to readers looking for information in this subject area. This topic is relevant because within the recent decade, public-private partnerships (P3s) have been increasingly adopted as a means of delivering services and infrastructure projects in Canada (Whiteside, 2011).  Having information on how P3s in Canada can contribute to future research in the areas of alternative service delivery on micro and macro levels. In the realm of comparative public policy, having this article would be important.  Having a detailed, impartial article on P3s in Canada will contribute to information that can then be compared to other alternatives in different countries.  This can potentially lead to new innovations in service delivery and public policy.

The current Canada stub in the “Public-private partnership” is very short and does not have much informative content. A Big issue is that it does not include any references, so the academic integrity and reliability of the information is questioned. It briefly talks about the different levels of government and there interactions with P3s. It also briefly has information one historical event, which leaves the section insufficient in this area. The paragraph doesn’t flow properly and has vague information that is not necessarily needed. Furthermore, the words “celebration of successful public private partnerships…” are used when describing P3s, which questions the neutrality of the stub. There is no reference to criticisms and Canadian political interaction in this stub. This stub is relatively incomplete and lacks detail that can be used for reliable research. 

The article I propose to write will have several stubs. Firstly, there will be a stub on The Historical context of P3s in Canada. This section will talk primarily on the timeline of how P3s were introduced in Canada and where Canada is now in P3 development. Development of the first P3 initiatives such as 407 long-term lease in the GTA, and the confederation bridge linking Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick will be touched upon. The overall theme of this section is to show how P3s grew from an idea to an accepted alternative of service delivery.  After the timeline of P3s are laid out the “Rationale” section will be presented. This section will include information on the reasons for P3s as a means of service delivery, what they try to accomplish, and goals of a P3 as a whole. This will provide a strong basis for the reader’s knowledge of what a P3 is in Canadian context, with neutral and referenced academic material. After this the “Criticisms of P3s” section will follow. This section will illustrate the issues with this service delivery platform, mainly focusing on how conflicting goals of the individual public and private sectors interact with each other. It is important for this section to include unbiased information rather than create an argument against the use of P3s. Mindfulness of the writing style used in this section will be important for it to meet Wikipedia’s publishing rules. After this, a stub on recent example of p3 will be provided. This will show readers up to date P3 initiatives in Canada that have occurred within the last 5 years. To contribute to neutrality, the information on each P3 project will include only the facts of its operation and what was accomplished. Finally, a section on “political and societal influence” will follow. This section will outline information based around how Canadas level of centralization impacts aspects of Public-private partnership as well as the effects of society. This article will include numerous sources and be edited several times to make sure it meets all of Wikipedia’s publishing requirements.

Annotated bibliography

Barker, P. (2008), Chapter 8: Alternative service Delivery. Public Administration in Canada: Brief Edition. Nelson Education limited: Toronto, ON.

This Specific chapter from the book outlines definitions of public sector involvement as well as a clear definition of what public-private partnerships are. It provides several case studies to illustrate real Canadian examples. It also outlines several pros as well as cons at micro and macro levels with regards to accountability, public interest, and profit. It finally shows the differences between P3s and other ASD mechanisms such as crown corporations, and regulated sectors. This will be used in the lead, “Rationle”, and “Critisim” sections.

Newman, J. and Perl, A. (2014), Partners in clime: Public-private partnerships and British Columbia's capacity to pursue climate policy objectives. Can Public Admin, 57: 217–233. doi:10.1111/capa.12051

This article provides information on how P3 infrastructure initiatives effect the capability of government to act on perusing climate change policy initiatives. The article describes how at first glance there may be conflict between P3 infrastructure initiatives and issues such as climate change policy due to the goals of the private sector aspect of P3s. In the example studied in the journal article, the authors find that there are cases and potential for P3 infrastructure initiatives to have insignificant effect on climate change policy. This Article will be used in the “Criticism” and “political and societal influence” sections.

PPP Canada Inc. (2017), PPP Canada. Retrieved from: http://www.p3canada.ca/en/

This is the official PPP Canada website. This is the crown corporation that contracts out several projects to the private sector. This website includes several categories of information about P3s, including: Purpose of P3s, what the goals of P3s are, why P3s exist, How P3 projects are initiated and so on. This website also includes detailed information on P3 projects that have been funded and completed throughout the country. This website contains the who, what, where, when, and how of P3s in Canada. This reliable website will be used throughout the wiki article.

Siemiatycki, M. (2015), Public-Private Partnerships in Canada: Reflections on twenty years of practice. Can Public Admin, 58: 343–362. doi:10.1111/capa.12119

This article provides the history of P3s in Canada from the 1990 to 2015. It outlines the details of the first and second waves of P3 projects, as well as the rationale behind the whole process as a whole. It also talks about how public funding, the structures of the government, and partnership models that were decided upon over other models. This article also touches on the current unsolved issues of P3s surrounding cost, community consultation, and processes effecting architectural design. This article will be used through the whole wiki article due to its dense factual information.

Whiteside, H. (2011). Unhealthy policy: The political economy of Canadian public-private partnership hospitals. Health Sociology Review, 20(3), 258-268. doi:10.5172/hesr.2011.20.3.258

This Journal Article touches on the brief history of development of P3s in the development of service delivery. It evaluates whether P3s are able to live up to their expectations by evaluating P3 projects, particularly hospitals that are in operation. It describes some of the negative impacts P3 has on the public health sector by examining economic and societal effects. It also studies how P3s will likely be able to withstand a global financial crisis despite some of its downfalls. This article will be used in the “criticism of P3”, “Rationale”, and “political and societal influence” part of the article.