NEWS RELEASE
NAPE Welcomes Government’s Decision to Cancel P3 RFP Process for Long-Term Care
For Immediate Release:
Friday, January 29, 2016
ST. JOHN’S, NL– NAPE President Jerry Earle was pleased to learn that the current government has cancelled the Request For Proposals (RFP) for long-term care in the province. The RFP process, which had been put forward by the previous administration, had called for the creation of four Long-Term Care facilities that would be designed, built, maintained and operated under a Public Private Partnership (P3) model.
“This is certainly welcome news for our union and for the people of the province,” said Earle. “Our union had serious reservations about the RFP process for long-term care, specifically regarding the public private partnership model as it relates to quality and safety of services, value for money, and the lack of transparency surrounding the entire process.”
To fight back against the previous government’s privatization agenda, NAPE rolled out a public relations campaign to coincide with the recent provincial election. The ‘Don’t Let Go – Say NO to Privatization’ campaign shone a spotlight on the privatization issue during the election by focusing on the proposed P3 model for long-term care in the province. The campaign ran on multiple platforms (social media, online, TV, radio, and print) province-wide throughout the election. It garnered a significant amount of attention and positive feedback. The campaign’s videos were viewed more than 150,000 times on social media alone.
“Governments across Canada and around the world claim that P3s are innovative and more efficient, but the real world experience has shown the opposite to be true in an alarming number of cases,” continued Earle. “When profit comes before people – something has to give. It’s good to see the current government recognize that and take a step back from the process to revaluate.”
“It is also very encouraging to see that the current Minister of Transportation of Works, Al Hawkins, is committing to looking at solutions with ‘the public sector providing direct care’,” stated Earle. “While we welcome the cancellation of the existing P3 RFP, we are keen to speak with the government about their plans for addressing the province’s long-term care needs going forward.”
– 30 –
For further information, please contact:
Keith Dunne, NAPE Campaigns and Communications Coordinator
(phone) 709.570.2501 (cell) 709.631.9737 (email) kdunne@nape.ca
Recent Comments