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Reprinted from The Taxpayer, Summer
2009, with permission of The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, a federally incorporated
not-for-profit and non-partisan organization dedicated to lower taxes, less waste
and accountable government in Canada. Copyright © 2009 www.taxpayer.com.
Published December 2009
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Insincere Objections
The reasons municipalities exclude larger plastic pipe range from the "need to further study the material", to "unsubstantiated claims about performance." Yet it has been certified in all diameters by every required international, national, state and provincial agency, and is used by thousands of municipalities worldwide. Allowing PVC in all sizes should become a mainstay of municipal tenders as it would increase competition and reduces costs.
Not surprisingly, not everyone agrees with driving down costs and longer lasting products. Consider the case of Philadelphia, one of the few large urban centers in North America that does not allow PVC for residential plumbing. When a motion to change Philadelphia's plumbing code was recently introduced, it was defeated when the local plumbers' union stacked the meeting. Clearly, politics and vested interests play a role in product tendering.
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Prohibitive Procurement
