Dear editor,
The unsupported views presented in Alice De Wolff’s June 13, 2016 letter to the editor are a selective understanding of history and a misunderstanding of public-private partnerships.
Contrary to the headline, history makes it abundantly clear that P3s have been used successfully to build high-quality infrastructure in municipalities and communities across Canada.
Despite Ms. De Wolff’s suggestion, the history of P3s in Canada is not “full of examples where cost over-runs, inadequate monitoring and testing, poor quality and high service fees end up being the responsibility of the public partner to clean up or manage.”
It’s an unsupportable claim because it’s simply not true.
In fact, the Canadian P3 model is designed to shift the risks of cost-over runs and long term maintenance away from the public sector, ensuring the project delivers real value for the tax dollars invested in a given project.
Over a 10-year period, P3s in Canada have saved governments nearly $10 billion, generated $7.5 billion in tax revenue, nearly 300 thousand full time jobs and contributed $25 billion in direct GDP. Public-private partnerships consistently outperform traditionally procured projects when it comes to delivering assets on time and on budget.
Mark Romoff
President and CEO
Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships
