I would commend Dr. Loxley's work to you. He describes forms of P3s, he gives you some examples of sizes, and he canvasses Mr. Holder's question about the amount of infrastructure deficit we have in Canada. As well, in five pages of this 35-page report he mentions six pointed questions to ask municipal councillors, one of them being is risk being transferred and do you understand the value-for-money alleged savings being indicated to you?
This was written for elected officials, not for me. As a decision-maker, if you don't understand the answer to those questions, you have to keep asking. This is the transparency the decision-makers need to know, that the value for money really is real, the risk doesn't rest with the public sector, and are we getting ourselves into an area where we're mortgaging debt and it would be cheaper....
I think the public can handle the conversation about debt and fixing up infrastructure. But don't mortgage debt under the illusion that you can do more projects more quickly, because auditors general across Canada have said this can't be off your balance sheet. It's an expense.