EDMONTON – A poll released Monday shows almost two-thirds of Edmonton residents don’t want a private company to run the south-east LRT.
The federal government last month promised the city $250 million last month to help pay for the project as a public-private partnership or P3 that a consortium would design, build, finance, operate and maintain.
But a coalition of labour and public interest groups is fighting this plan, arguing service is likely to be worse than if the city was in charge of the line and costs will be higher.
“These negotiations need to be done with much more clarity, in public, and Edmontonians need to be assured we’re getting good value for our tax dollars,” said Bill Moore-Kilgannon, executive director of Public Interest Alberta.
An Environics poll commissioned by the group indicates 64 per cent of people surveyed disagree that turning over operations of the south-east LRT to a private corporation is the correct decision.
As well, 61 per cent have a problem with the federal government “forcing” the city to privatize part of the LRT to get funding, and 71 per cent are concerned council decided behind closed doors to go this route.
“This whole thing happened completely in private with no input from anyone,” Moore-Kilgannon said.
The group has launched a website, ourlrt.ca, as part of a push to make the proposed P3 an issue in the October civic election.
“Keep your councillors accountable,” said Stu Litwinowich, president of Local 569 Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents Edmonton transit workers.
“Once this deal is done, future councils will have no power to make changes.”
The telephone poll of 813 Edmonton adults was done between Feb. 27 and March 4, about two weeks before the federal P3 funding was announced.
It’s considered accurate to within 3.4 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
Councillors voted last May to use a P3 to build the line, but in August had to expand the scope so a private company rather than Edmonton Transit will maintain and operate the line in order to would qualify for federal funding.
The city hopes to complete financing this year for the $1.8-billion low-floor LRT so construction can start in 2015.
A 2010 PricewaterhouseCoopers study determined a P3 could build the entire LRT from Lewis Estates to Mill Woods, then run and maintain it for 30 years, for up to 10 per cent less than traditional methods, but opponents are skeptical.
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