November 27, 2008

Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships Conference

Use of local resources should not be mandated in P3 contracts, panelists say

VINCE VERSACE

staff writer

Using local companies and labour should not be mandated in public-private partnerships, P3 stakeholders maintain.

“We do not score more points on (use of) local companies,” said Pierre Lefebvre, president and chief executive officer of Parternariats public-privé Quebec and a director at the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships.

Panelists discussing P3 prospects for the coming year at CCPPP’s annual conference agreed that the use of local resources should not be mandated because it goes against the competitive bidding process. But encouraging the use of local companies and workers should not be ruled out either, they said.

The track records of companies and consortium members, in areas related to a project’s scope, are the ultimate things judged during a P3 evaluation, explained various P3 experts on the panel.

Lefebvre noted that ultimately, from what he has seen in deals in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and the Maritimes, most local companies do end up being involved.

“We do not dictate the use of local companies, but the projects are so varied that, by default, projects do,” added Lefebvre.

The Windsor Construction Association has recently expressed concerns that some of its local members could miss out on work if the feeder road to the new Windsor-Detroit crossing is organized through Infrastructure Ontario, which has frequently used a version of P3 on recent projects.

The $1.6 billion feeder road project is too large for local companies to come together to do, the association argued. Infrastructure Ontario says that, in its experience, local companies and labour do ultimately end up with the majority of work even through a consortium.

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