Road license proposal ignites debate over commercialization of public services in Finland

Would citizens rather want to pay fees to commercial companies than taxes to the government? This has been the center of the latest political debate ongoing in Finland.

The tough debate erupted after the country's Transport Minister Anne Berner raised an ambitious proposal to incorporate the highways.

The idea had no commitment from the whole cabinet and caused a fast-paced political crisis, even though Berner was supported by Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila.

In the end, Berner had to call off the idea.

The plan envisaged an ecosystem and profit chain for the roads: A state-owned company would become the owner of highways and would sell road usage licenses to commercial companies that would then make profit through selling them to the consumers.

Conservative MP and Finance Minister Petteri Orpo said he could not see the logic of how private road license operators could bring in more money to the state, and some key Finns Party representatives argued it would give "national property to businessmen to make money on."

Defendants of the road plan said something like the flourishing competitive market in the mobile phone sector could be created for the highways.

Pasi Nieminen, chairman of the drivers interest organization Autoliitto, said that phone companies each have networks, while there is usually only one major road between key cities in Finland. Nieminen warned of a natural monopoly being created.

Nevertheless, some insurance companies and at least one bank rushed to say they would enter the road usage license market.

The dispute reopened the somewhat forgotten public debate about the pros and cons of commercialization, and was quickly connected with the health sector.

Changing agency type public health service units into provincially owned companies is a key part of the ongoing health reform. No parliamentary decisions on it have been taken as of yet though.

The reform will further bring the provincial companies into competition with privately owned or third sector health service companies.

Therefore, fears have been expressed that the provincial companies with little experience in marketing and commercial operations could easily go bankrupt, allowing the international health business to get the upper hand at least in the Finnish primary care.

In an editorial this week, the Helsinki-based daily Hufvudstadsbladet said that it has been a tendency in the whole western world lately to turn public services into "commercialized products that citizens could choose from".

"But not all people want to be forced to start making business choices in everyday life," the paper concluded.

Even though owned by the state or provinces, the envisaged companies would not be under parliamentary budget control. Hufvudstadsbladet said that incorporization could create a society with medieval type of decision making. Endit