One of the concerns about public-private partnerships is that they tend to cost more because the government is effectively paying a private partner to borrow money at a higher rate than the government itself could access. I was pleased to hear that the new government was going to remove the requirement that projects receiving federal infrastructure funding necessarily be organized as P3s. However, I was concerned to see in the main estimates a massive increase of 22% year over year in funding for P3 Canada. I want to clarify where the government is at on this. Is it trying to relieve municipalities and provinces of this obligation to structure their projects as P3s, or is it in fact pushing them down that road?
On April 19th, 2016. See this statement in context.