In a recent CBC The Current radio interview, Elizabeth Brubaker, Environment Probe's executive director, debated Council of Canadians' Trade Campaigner Stuart Trew on water privatization in Canada within the context of the Canada-EU Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement.

It's not just unions any more.

The more I think about this, the more the idea makes sense: the time has come to shine a bright light on the fiscal operations of all organizations to which Canadian citizens must pay dues in order to work, as well as on all those that benefit from taxpayer-paid subsidies, enjoy charitable status or attempt to influence public policy.

We can do this by passing laws in Parliament and in our provincial legislatures requiring minimum public financial reporting standards for several categories of organization that do business with public funds, represent members who must join in order to be able to work or otherwise take advantage of public funding.

In a month or so, the Ontario Court of Appeal will hear a case that will set important legal standards for P3s in Canada, and determine whether municipalities can hide behind the complexities of such schemes to subsidize private developers while ignoring public procurement rules.

At issue is a P3 scheme to privatize Lansdowne Park which is arguably the City of Ottawa's most valuable public asset. You may have skated by it on the Rideau Canal -- a world heritage site.

The City has decided to give most of the park to private developers for commercial development while subsidizing their investments and losses in football and hockey franchises.

Increased private sector involvement through public-private partnerships (P3s) have delivered efficiency gains for the public sector, a high degree of cost certainty and greater transparency than traditional procurement, the Conference Board of Canada said in a report issued in January.

In their report, Dispelling the Myths, the Conference Board said P3s yield substantial cost and time savings, but cautioned “not all infrastructure projects are suitable for P3 procurement.”

Public private partnerships (P3s) waste public money because it costs substantially more to raise capital for public infrastructure indirectly through a P3 than directly through public borrowing, according to a report released Monday by the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE).