I'm specifically talking about the federal government's PPP Canada. If there is expertise required, you can bring that expertise in. We're talking about its having always been the municipalities or the public sector that have done so; otherwise, nothing would get built.
Just off the top of my head looking in my area, right now there's a biofuel facility in my city that had municipal, provincial, federal, and private sector involvement. It's opening in June. There was a rapid transit line, the Canada Line, that again leveraged private sector, federal, provincial, and regional dollars; likewise the Port Mann Bridge and the Golden Ears Bridge. This has all been done in the same context. The only difference with that mechanism is around, as you've said, underwriting loans.
It escapes me why, when you have a track record like this, you wouldn't, if that's where the government wants to go.... I know they want it new and shiny and “nobody's ever done this before”; however, it would seem reasonable and rational, since you already have that mechanism set up, that if you need additional expertise you would just bring it in and expand the mandate.
PPP Canada is still there. It's still leveraging, albeit it has gone under the minister's office and they can dispose of assets and get rid of it, which I think is the ultimate goal, and then replace it with this. Again, a $35-billion investment under the PPP Canada model would generate $170 billion in infrastructure money that would have no risk to the general public. I still don't understand why you wouldn't just expand an existing mechanism.