What I was getting at with my final point in my comments was that data is key. These projects put out a digital exhaust, a data exhaust. There is tons of information, and I think we could be using it to analyze performance and best practices. I think the federal government could play a much more information coordinating role beyond just P3s.
The idea of PPP Canada seems to suggest that P3s are the only innovative construction method. There are many others that bundle. There's alliance contracting. There's construction management at risk. There are all sorts of other mechanisms. I'd like to see their mandate broaden to be “Infrastructure Procurement Canada”, “Infrastructure Delivery Canada”, and then they could serve the role of collecting and compiling data across the whole country, so that we can be learning lessons not just about P3s, which are innovative and have the potential to deliver value under certain conditions, but across all types of infrastructure.
The final point I'd raise is that P3s are only for a small fraction of projects. What about all the other procurements that fall either below this size or don't meet the criteria. We still need to be delivering those projects effectively too, and I think the federal government could play an important coordinating, information gathering, and knowledge centre role in encouraging that.