Mr. Chair, the bank will follow modern and robust legal and investment agreements that contemplate all these potential scenarios, through the finance planning stage, the construction stage, and the operating stage. That will ensure everyone knows the rules of the game through agreement.
If something were to happen, the project doesn't perform as intended, it likely means the private investors who absorb risk would take a loss or their returns would be reduced, as intended. If one of the players were to go into some form of default, provisions exist to have someone else enter into their place, which usually happens during the construction phase, no different from any traditional procurement, and these are managed. To the extent to which something happens to a particular investor—who has already put their money in the project—then they may, through a normal court process, have to transfer their liability or sell their position in the project to another investor.
This is largely normal routine in the world of infrastructure and big projects to ensure projects continue to get built and keep moving, and partnership agreements contemplate and manage all these scenarios. That system works very well in Canada.
