Its worse than that. Government can get the money with a tax, hire competent people, put appropriate guidelines in place for performance, and deploy the capital with the lowest possible overhead and waste because their only objective is to provide a service and there is a large bureaucracy in place for much of the mundane stuff.
If you let private capital come in, they need to build or buy a bureaucracy, AND also receive a return on their investment at a rate competitive with other investments. Let’s say that’s better than a 5% annual return in bonds.
So private money is at least 5% total investment per year + administrative costs more expensive than having government do it. Where will that be extracted from? Services to people, other businesses using the airport, or government will need to get worse/cheaper (deregulation, enshitification, labour concessions, etc.), costs to these groups will need to go up, or all the above. And private capital will to do this to the maximum possible amount, and pocket that money. Any surplus in a public funding situation goes back to the public.
This is literally the worst way to fund this shit. Look at almost every former-public-now-private enterprise in Canada. Telcos, airlines, rail. Look at Thames Water. Look at the power grids in Alberta and Texas. This is stupid policy, a handout to the rich, and theft from the public.
Its worse than that. Government can get the money with a tax, hire competent people, put appropriate guidelines in place for performance, and deploy the capital with the lowest possible overhead and waste because their only objective is to provide a service and there is a large bureaucracy in place for much of the mundane stuff.
If you let private capital come in, they need to build or buy a bureaucracy, AND also receive a return on their investment at a rate competitive with other investments. Let’s say that’s better than a 5% annual return in bonds.
So private money is at least 5% total investment per year + administrative costs more expensive than having government do it. Where will that be extracted from? Services to people, other businesses using the airport, or government will need to get worse/cheaper (deregulation, enshitification, labour concessions, etc.), costs to these groups will need to go up, or all the above. And private capital will to do this to the maximum possible amount, and pocket that money. Any surplus in a public funding situation goes back to the public.
This is literally the worst way to fund this shit. Look at almost every former-public-now-private enterprise in Canada. Telcos, airlines, rail. Look at Thames Water. Look at the power grids in Alberta and Texas. This is stupid policy, a handout to the rich, and theft from the public.