Sometimes there are interesting stories that sort of fall between the cracks. One of them concerns a presentation that Bombardier CEO Pierre Beaudoin gave in Los Angeles last week at a conference put on by the Milken Institute, a West Coast think tank that "whose mission is to improve the lives and economic conditions of diverse populations in the United States and around the world by helping business and public policy leaders identify and implement innovative ideas for creating broad-based prosperity."
Public Private Partnerships are constructed so that they cost more money than projects financed solely by governments, if only because the interest rates charged public entities are less than those charged companies and consortiums, Beaucoin said on a panel on "Investing in Global Infrastructure." While he said he thinks that cost management is better done by the private sector--a point which is hotly debated in other circles--the finance costs are much higher there. Over a period of 20 years, a PPP that would cost $1 billion would see added interest costsof $480 million, were it financed by government alone, he said. This is a problem that bears much reflection, he said.
What is more, when PPPs run into financial problems, they're bound to be bailed out because the governments need what they are producing. In the end, financing by PPPs amounts to an indirect way of raising taxes, he said.
This interesting admission appears to have been reported practically no place until Sylvain Laroque of La Presse candienne moved a story yesterday on what Beaudoin said. I haven't been able to find a Bombardier press release on it, there was nothing in the Los Angeles Times or any financial publication. I'd like to know how Laroque got hold of the talk: good reporting on his part? Or a leak from Bombardier? Were was the Twitter on this one? And why hasn't it shown up yet in the Anglophone press?
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