Government Operations committee  Absolutely, I think it is a very important area. The contrast between design-build or design-bid-build procurement versus P3s, is that our money, our guarantees, are at risk for the long-term performance of the infrastructure we're building. We're not guaranteeing this for a tw

Government Operations committee  I think innovation, which is important for the public sector, is often centred on the things I'm talking about. Building something so that it survives the two years until you walk away as a builder is a whole different mindset from designing something that you know you're respons

Government Operations committee  Exactly, so—

Government Operations committee  There was a discussion of that at the bidding time, but it was a decision that Interior Health made. They wished to keep the housekeeping, catering, and all of the other support services with their existing staff. Arguably, that is a set of services that is closer to the front li

Government Operations committee  Yes. All I can say is that there are probably 20 years of experience. Professor Loxley has obviously found lots of research about the projects and the concept of P3s. I think that with every form of public procurement, if specialist advice is available and there is knowledge an

Government Operations committee  Yes, that is correct. If the project is set up as a P3, the project company that is set up to do that project would typically be financed with both equity and debt finance, and obviously the cost of the debt would be factored into that. However, if you're doing a traditional desi

Government Operations committee  I do, Mr. Stewart. I have quite detailed knowledge of that project. It's one that I was involved in personally, with bidding, and I sit on the board of that project company, so I know it very well. We worked very closely with Interior Health on that project, but the scope of our

Government Operations committee  I'm sure you'll imagine I have a differing view. I agree completely, however, that there should be greater transparency. I have no problem whatsoever, John. I'd be more than happy to come and see you in Winnipeg and show you how we do our risk analysis. Obviously, we're doing i

Government Operations committee  I wouldn't put a number on it, Mr. Wallace, but certainly a range of projects is suited to P3s and a range is not. Typically, technically complex projects and large projects lend themselves to P3s. Smaller ones may be easier because less risk is involved, and it may be more appro

Government Operations committee  I've studied that pretty closely, and certainly I think the vast majority of the criticism in the U.K. has been about the service delivery. I think that's not so much the maintenance of the actual infrastructure itself, but the other associated services. As I mentioned earlier, I

Government Operations committee  Yes. Thank you for your question. I think it is basic economics, isn't it. Government has the right to tax its citizens. In a democracy we the people accept that point. Therefore, government can borrow more cheaply than the private sector; there's no question. But in a fiscally

Government Operations committee  I'm happy to respond, if that's okay. Mr. Larose, thank you very much for your question. I'll do my best to answer it, but I do not have specific knowledge of the A-25 project in Quebec, so I can't speak to the details of that. In the case of many of these projects, quoting ind

Government Operations committee  I'll add my comments, Monsieur Gourde. Thank you for the question. I agree there is a lot of experience in writing contracts to share and transfer risks. I think Canada has benefited from some of the early mistakes that were made in other markets, notably Australia and the U.K.

Government Operations committee  Shall I take that first, John? Are you okay with that?

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much for your question, Monsieur Blanchette. My comment on that is, to some extent I do agree with you. If the public sector was an expert procurer and it did have the depth of skills to manage complex infrastructure procurement, it probably could do so without a