Insight P3's are collaborative projects set to make daily life easier for us all.
The objective of P3s is for the public sector to have cost certainty and asset quality certainty.
The Toronto skyline sits at eye level, framed perfectly in the floor-to-ceiling pane glass windows of Bert Clark's office – president and CEO of Infrastructure Ontario.
It's fitting, given the city below is dotted with examples of the organization's achievements – there's Bridgepoint Health Centre, the Toronto South Detention Centre and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. These are testaments to the success of IO's approach to public-private partnerships (P3) known in the province as Alternative Financing and Procurement projects.
Initially set up in 2005 to tackle the province's capital deficit, Ontario's P3 model AFP has tackled some the most ambitious assets in health, transportation, and justice.
The model fosters partnerships between the public sector and private sector consortiums – comprised of designers, construction companies and life cycle management – for developing public assets.
Essentially, the private sector takes the risks associated with design, construction, and ongoing maintenance of the building or highway, while the government manages the political risk and initial funds.
"Oh, and we're not paying a dollar until it's done and when we do, we'll pay you monthly for 30 years and only if we got exactly what we wanted," says Clark.
The approach pushes the private sector to design and build an asset that will last.
As he speaks, tunnel-boring machines are elbowing their way beneath Eglinton and the link between Pearson Airport and Union station is well on its way to completion in time for the 2015 Pan Am games in Toronto, which IO is also heavily involved in developing athletic facilities for.
Although an overwhelming portion of P3 projects are in Ontario, the model has been employed countrywide.
At the moment there are 205 P3 projects around the country across a myriad of sectors, mainly in road and transit construction. The CCPPP estimates that P3 projects have created 290,000 direct jobs over the past decade and contributed $48 billion to Canada's GDP.
But the model isn't without its critics.