this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2024
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Ontario

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9 privately-run ServiceOntario locations moving to Staples stores, province says (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Six locations will open by Feb. 1, with three additional outlets expected in Staples within the coming months.

The first six locations are:

  • Oakville, 2460 Winston Churchill Blvd.
  • Newmarket, 17810 Yonge St.
  • Toronto, 180 Eglinton Ave. E.
  • Strathroy, 425 Caradoc St. S.
  • Tillsonburg, Tillsonburg Town Centre, 200 Broadway St.
  • Welland, Seaway Mall, 800 Niagara St.
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The provincial government is moving nine privately-run ServiceOntario outlets to Staples Canada stores this year, the minister of public and business service delivery said Monday.

Todd McCarthy announced the impending changes at a morning news conference in Oakville.

Six locations will open by Feb. 1, with three additional outlets expected in Staples within the coming months.

The plan to move nine ServiceOntario outlets is part of a broader push to consider new locations for all of the stand-alone, privately run operations of the provincial provider.

As contracts with the 134 remaining privately operated ServiceOntario locations approach expiry, the government will be reviewing them to determine if they should continue to operate in the same way or if they should be closed and moved into retail outlets, libraries, or municipal offices, the news wire reported.

CityNews reported earlier this month that the contract with Staples was sole-sourced, and that some of the privately-run operators were given 70 days notice that their locations would close.

The original article contains 178 words, the summary contains 157 words. Saved 12%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] -3 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Honestly I don't mind this. If this reduces the cost to the government it is a very small inconvenience to me as a user. Sure, Staples gets some extra foot traffic but if that is a significant cost reduction I don't mind. In general I don't think the government should be advertising private companies but this is very, very minimal.

I don't have much problem with Canada Post in Shoppers either. I think that was a decent experiment and turned out well.

I think this is a world of difference between privatizing something. They are basically just subletting property rather than renting a whole unit. If that reduces cost of business that can lead to better service or budget shifted elsewhere I am happy to try it. If the quality of service drops we can consider it a failed experiment and roll back.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

@kevincox @veeesix So, why won't they release their business case showing that? They're banding about figures of $1M savings over a year, or maybe three years (depending on source) but nothing to back it up. A rather piddly sum given the size of their budget.
Did they even do a proper business case for it? It smells too much like this is just a payoff to his business buddies, and the fact that they'll be putting largely #unionized #ServiceOntario workers out of work is just gravy.
#onpoli

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

This is privatization as this is straight up franchising government service. Once something is privatized it will never come back to the public domain.

Just as an example, Drive test, never under government control once franchised under the previous PC government.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Privatization is not the answer.