From the Canadian Press:

Ottawa is exploring the possibility of allowing the private sector to finance and operate a new border crossing at Canada’s busiest point of entry to the United States, Trade and Infrastructure Minister Lawrence Cannon said Monday.

The clear signal that the federal government is entertaining private involvement in a second bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ont., comes amid new polling data that suggests nearly two-thirds of Canadians support the idea of public-private partnerships.

The poll in question was commissioned by the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships, and you can read it for yourself, if you like. It’s quite the piece of work. Apparently these are the questions they asked:

1. Governments are having trouble keeping pace with demands for new or improved public infrastructure and services. Do you agree or disagree?
2. It is time to allow the private sector to deliver these types of services in partnership with governments. Do you agree or disagree?
3. If your access to services remained the same, if the quality of services was the same or better and if the cost to you was no more than if the government was providing the service, would you support or oppose private sector involvement in the following areas: [and a bunch of service sectors are listed].

Aren’t access, quality of services, and cost three of the key issues surrounding privatization? (They also left out accountability, which to my mind would be the fourth.) How can you trust a poll that dodges those issues? And yet the Canadian Press story pretty much ignores the evident bias here. Sure, it quotes a union boss saying that the survey is “very short on questions that relate to access, cost and quality concerns,” but the reporter doesn’t follow that up — instead, the poll results are discussed as if they were reliable.

Also worth noting:

Security at the border crossing would continue to be the domain of Canadian and American border agencies, said David McFadden, chairman of communications for The Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships.

“What the private sector does is maintain the infrastructure, make sure it’s properly paved, cleaned, things of that nature,” McFadden said.

Let’s hope they stick to that. I’m not holding my breath, though: the article goes on to point out that Cannon “did say that a private-sector partner could ‘operate’ the crossing.” It would be nice if they could at least get their stories straight.