Good morning, and thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's a pleasure for me, of course, to be here this morning to appear before this committee on behalf of the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships and to speak a little bit about three things: I want to talk about the P3 market in Canada; I'd like to talk about the role of the council; and I want to talk about the opportunity to take Canada's growing P3 experience and expertise global.
As you mentioned, Mr. Chair, Michael Marasco is here with me. He is a director of the council and the CEO of Plenary Investments. He'll have a few minutes to speak in just a moment.
As you all know, today all countries of the world are facing large infrastructure deficits at a time when they're also confronting financial constraints. This is true, of course, in Canada as well. At the same time, sound and modern infrastructure is key to Canada's productivity and economic growth, and ultimately to a prosperous and globally competitive Canada.
With regard to public-private partnerships, or P3s, in particular, these are not new to Canada. Over the past 20 years, there has been more than $58 billion invested in more than 180 projects across Canada across a wide variety of sectors, notably in the areas of transportation and health. These projects are taking place right across Canada, although a great proportion of them are in Ontario, and after that British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, and New Brunswick. Of the 180 projects, more than half are now operational. The remainder are either under construction or in procurement.
Over this time, this period of 20 years, Canada has become a global leader in P3s, attracting P3 developers and partners from around the world to invest in Canadian infrastructure. If you have a look at the landscape in Canada, you'll see a large number of companies from the United Kingdom, Australia, the U.S., Spain, France, and Japan. They are all attracted to the Canadian marketplace because of the nature of the Canadian infrastructure pipeline and the model that has been adopted in Canada. Over this period, we have developed a model that has incorporated best practices and lessons learned from around the world, and today the Canadian P3 model is recognized internationally as best in class. That's quite remarkable, given that this is an approach to infrastructure development that began in the U.K. and Australia. Today both those countries are coming to study the Canadian approach to learn how they might improve their own approaches to P3s.
The Canadian Council itself was formed in 1993, at the same time that the concept of P3s was being explored as an alternative to traditional procurement for infrastructure development. We will be celebrating our 20th anniversary at our annual conference this year in November in Toronto. Our conference, too, is recognized internationally as the premier gathering of the P3 community. Over 1,200 leaders from both the public sector and private sector across Canada and internationally, combining all the talent brought to bear on the P3 market, will be brought together.
With respect to the council itself, we are a not-for-profit, non-partisan, member-based organization. Some 450 organizations now make up the council. That includes broad representation from the public sector—governments at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels right across Canada. About 20% of our membership comes from the public sector. The remaining 80% reflect the cross-section of players in the construction sector: consulting engineers, the financial community, lawyers, architects. They reflect the full range of players in typical P3 projects.
The council conducts research, provides education, hosts events around the country, and also delivers on its mandate by promoting the successes that have been achieved by Canada in the P3 space.
With regard to research, I've brought some examples of what we have undertaken over the past year. I will leave them for the committee. As an example, I have a P3 guide for municipalities. You may be aware that municipalities across Canada are becoming increasingly interested in P3s, so we've produced this document and have distributed 1,200 copies across Canada.
We also produced a report in the last year on Canada's activity in the health sector, particularly in hospitals. Since 2004, 50 hospitals in Canada have been built using the public-private partnership model, for a value of some $18 billion.
We also undertake an annual survey of the general public to test their perceptions of P3s. In the last survey, conducted last November, 70% of those surveyed indicated support for the public-private partnership approach to infrastructure development.
Let me finish off, Mr. Chair, by saying that in our view, the P3 is an effective vehicle for renewing and growing infrastructure and for delivering strong value for money for Canadian taxpayers.
I think you'll appreciate Mike Marasco's comments now, because he will bring a private sector perspective to this important area.
Thank you again for your time and attention.