Government Operations committee  In general terms, with respect to contract failures, I can give you some really good case study examples where when these projects fail, it's our equity at risk, it's the bond financing that's at risk. If that goes sideways, taxpayers are generally picking up an asset for cents o

Government Operations committee  I would argue that it ends up in the long run, because of the knock-on effect, generating more jobs. The case in point is when we develop this expertise in the private sector in Canada and are able to export that expertise abroad; it has a multiplier effect. The expertise, for ex

Government Operations committee  Thanks. Yes, I was on the government side for that transaction for the Abbotsford hospital project. It was a groundbreaking project not only for the government but for the industry. It was deal of the year because that project was the first hospital project in decades in British

Government Operations committee  That's a great question. Having built a convention centre ourselves on the waterfront in Melbourne, and several hospitals, I would argue any day that a hospital is much more complex and a much more critical environment than a convention centre. That's point number one. Hospital

Government Operations committee  I would just say that as a result of the intense competition in the Canadian market now, the risk premiums we would typically charge for these contracts have dwindled. It's a function of competition. To quote the Auditor General in the U.K., value for money is a function of effi

Government Operations committee  I wish we were one of those. That doesn't exist. There was a comment made earlier about private sector profits. Our economy is built around private sector entities making money so that we can pay taxes and fund government. That being said, the only way we make money is to get a r

Government Operations committee  Thanks. I'll be brief. I keep hearing about this enormous cost of private sector financing. Again, I think you have to take it into the perspective of looking at that whole-of-life cost, because the reality of it is—as I said with that example of the Vancouver trade and conventi

Government Operations committee  I have a really practical example. I would argue that there is greater protection under a PPP procurement, and the reason is that there's so much at risk for proponents. There was a federal contract that we recently won for the Communications Security Establishment Canada project

Government Operations committee  To answer your question with respect to the Canadian competencies that have been developed, because of the fierce competition from international players, the Canadian companies that have formed have had to become much more competitive to survive. I would argue they're thriving be

Government Operations committee  It's already been mentioned. The issue is transaction costs related to these projects. They're very complex contracts. You're right, we call them partnerships, but they're in fact legal agreements. There's a critical size needed to make these projects viable so that the transacti

Government Operations committee  First of all, developing that expertise—there is a tremendous talent pool in Canada of people who have that long-term expertise. I think the challenge we often face in the public sector is this budget balancing exercise that you referred to. When you get into tight budget circums

Government Operations committee  I think the best example of what we tried to do was in British Columbia, where we created that project office of excellence in the Vancouver trade and convention centre case. We had the best project managers in the country. We had a great governance model. Despite that, the inabi

Government Operations committee  Thank you. Unlike my colleagues who have spoken before me, I'm not a researcher; I'm a practitioner. I spent 26 years of my life in the public sector involved in real estate and large capital projects. I left five and a half years ago to become CEO of Plenary Concessions with th