Third party private contractors are not a new phenomenon for government agencies to hire in order to perform work or provide services in our day and age.
Canmore, for example, hires companies to plow its roads and provide photo radar.
Contracted services can be beneficial to the taxpayer, saving money in annual budgets. With these private companies the critical detail is the contract, which contains the performance measures, payment structure and expectations of services provided.
The only hiccup, of course, is that private interests often prevent full disclosure to voters and taxpayers as to what those details are – and the devil is surely in the details.
The province has been contracting out its disaster recovery program to LandLink Consulting Ltd. since 1998 and its most recent contract was signed in 2008. This company is the only one in Canada offering private DRP services, and the only bidder on the 2008 contract. Alberta is the only province to take this route as well.
We understand the government rationale for using a contractor. Officials point to saved administrative costs and the ability to recuperate those costs from the federal government.
But when it comes to service delivery and evaluating how this private company, which clearly operates to make a profit, meets the performance expectations set out for it – we are wholly underwhelmed.
A third party review of LandLink’s operations providing DRP services after the 2010 flooding only reinforces concerns residents have already expressed about the company. The review found no evidence the Alberta Emergency Management Agency had any processes in place to ensure LandLink was complying with the terms of its contract – a contract the province has refused to make public.
There is zero transparency when it comes to LandLink and what they do or how they are paid. Officials say it is on an hourly rate – but without the ability to review the contract and understand all expectations – it is questionable whether that is the only performance measure in place or if flood victims are receiving the right compensation through LandLink’s review process.
Certainly Canmore residents have been frustrated by this company and expressed their feelings to provincial elected officials Kyle Fawcett, deputy minister of recovery, and local MLA Ron Casey. At their last meeting, Fawcett and Casey asked residents to send their concerns or problems dealing with the DRP – i.e. LandLink – through their offices. They offered to act as liaison with the program.
Here at RMO, we find this absurd and tautological. This government hires a contractor to provide a service instead of doing it in-house, but then must turn around and act as representatives for flood victims with their own contractor when concerns about service delivery arise – and they definitely have.
The plain fact is that if LandLink was delivering a satisfactory service, there would be no need for elected officials to step into the process at all. Is that not what they are hired to do in the first place?
There is a wall of silence surrounding this company and this service. All calls to LandLink are ignored, emails unreturned and the only contact provided to media is – you guessed it – a government spokesperson.
This for-profit business needs to come out of the shadows and answer questions about how it operates. As taxpayers we are paying them for this service, but we don’t if they are meeting any expectations at all.
Flood victims have been through enough – they deserve to know exactly who is dealing with them and how.
