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In July 1999, after months of debate, Edmonton City Council voted against selling EPCOR’s electrical assets. In the lead-up to that decision the Parkland Institute produced two reports that addressed both the value of EPCOR and the nature of its business environment (Taft, 1999; Taft and Gordon Laxer, 1999).
The Government of Alberta under Ralph Klein has asked a reasonable question: can health care be better provided partly as a private, for-profit product rather than as a not-for-profit public service? But -- despite the claims of advocates for market-driven medicine -- private hospitals are neither cheaper nor more efficient than public ones. Clear Answers summarises the huge body of evidence showing that they are more expensive and less efficient.
The study presented here is a business analysis of the issue of whether or not Edmonton City Council should proceed with the sale of EPCOR.
Alberta had the tightest controls on spending in Canada during the very period when the Klein government has claimed costs were soaring out of control. Now, public programs in Alberta-including health care-have become the most poorly supported in Canada. (6 weeks on the Financial Post national best-seller list!)
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