Government Operations Committee on Oct. 4th, 2012

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Okay. You have this fund of $1.2 billion over five years. What was the first year?

[John McBride]

What was the first year that we got money?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

For the $1.2 billion over five years.

[John McBride]

How much was it? It was $162 million.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

It was $162 million in what year?

[John McBride]

In 2008-09 or 2009-10.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

When was the first time—

[John McBride]

It would have been 2009-10.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

And you spent $162 million in that year?

[John McBride]

No. We did not commit $162 million in our first year.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

When was the first year you committed significant money?

[John McBride]

We committed significant money last year and even more significant money this year.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

It seems to me that for an institution that's five years old, you've gotten off to a very slow start.

We had a very unsuccessful election campaign in 2011, but one of our platform items was that we'd transfer the money from your organization into affordable housing, because it was our perception that you'd done virtually nothing with that money as of, say, 2010. Was that perception correct?

[John McBride]

I don't share that perception.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

But you just told me the first money you spent was last year.

[John McBride]

That's true. We were created in 2009 as a crown corporation. In February 2009 I was appointed. I was employee number one, so this was a new approach by the federal government to create an institution. The board of directors was appointed in June 2009. We spent some time figuring out what we should do with the fund, and then we launched our first call for applications in September 2009. Those applications were received, and we worked with clients on those kinds of things.

You're right. These are not projects that happen overnight. These are complex projects. Our emphasis is on making sure we're making the best investments—not the quickest investments—and focusing on projects that actually produce value for money.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

In your statement it says in 2007 your organization....

[John McBride]

In Budget 2007, the government announced that it was going to create this fund, and at that time there was going to be a PPP office, but the actual creation of a crown corporation as a separate institution of government—which I would argue is best practice, if you take a look at what Ontario and B.C. and other jurisdictions have done—did take some time.

I can speak to when I arrived in February of 2009, but I think since then we've made enormous progress. Working to actually develop new approaches to the way the public sector does business doesn't happen overnight. We have seen a significant growth in applications, going from 70 to 200. In our last round we received $13 billion worth of applications for infrastructure, and we expect that within the next 18 to 24 months.... It takes a bit of an exponential growth as you start up an organization. I personally—and I know this view is shared by my board—would rather make sure the money is well spent than spent fast.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Thank you.

Finally, I think it would be helpful if you don't mind sharing that information from the PPP Bulletin.

[John McBride]

Absolutely.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

I'd be interested in seeing it. It's not that I don't want Canada to be a world leader. It's just that I hear everybody is saying it all the time about everything, and I'd like to know if it's really true.

[John McBride]

Don't get me wrong. We have things to learn from others. There's no doubt about that.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Thank you, John.

For the Conservatives, we'll go to Kelly Block.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. McBride, for being here. It's been a terrific presentation, and I've appreciated the questions that have been asked so far.

Perhaps I'll just follow up on my colleague's question about how fast we are managing to spend the money. I know you stated that you work with provinces, territories, municipalities, and first nations. I'm just wondering if you could share with us whether or not those partners were ready for what the federal government was intending by creating the P3s, or if capacity needed to be built at those levels as well.