Regional partnership for regional PPP
Ontario's Provincial Police Modernisation shows how teaming up with local contractors and equity providers can be a good way to win a bundled PPP project spread across a wide footprint
ONTARIO'S DONE MORE PPP deals than any other province in Canada, with more than 40 projects now under construction. But if one were to unbundle its latest deal, even that number would seem small.
In September, the province closed on a $548 million deal, to be paid over 30 years, to build 18 new facilities for the Ontario Provincial Police. Sprinkled throughout 16 municipalities in the province, the facilities will replace old police buildings which have exceeded their useful life with new state-of-the art regional headquarters, detachments and forensic identification units better able to meet the needs of a modern police force.
"It's really only the second bundled project that we have undertaken," explained Vas Georgiou senior vice president of project delivery at Infrastructure Ontario. The Ottawa Hospital Regional Cancer Program was the first bundled project, which is now under construction and will be completed in early 2011.
Bundling is not a priority for the province, Canada's largest by population, since its projects typically are of large-enough size to attract private capital on their own. But in this case, the benefits were compelling.
"With 18 facilities to be constructed in 16 municipalities across the province, there is significant risk transfer," Georgiou said. "There's everything from coordination, to the vast geography, dealing with local trades [and] overseeing the maintenance of those 18 facilities once they're operational."