Now that we have discussed conventional and P3 procurement methods, it is worth dispelling some of the misconceptions that have crept into the public discourse on P3s. First, P3s in Canada are not about the privatization of public assets. Ownership of new infrastructure facilities either remains with the public sector or is transferred back to the public sector at the end of the contract term. Moreover, the public sector retains full control of the infrastructure and the outcomes of the project. The public sector owner also retains the right to make changes to the project requirements (i.e., change orders), including terminating the P3 agreement, and it retains full accountability to taxpayers for the project.
The second point is that most of the Canadian P3s do not involve replacing public provision of assets or services with private provision. Conventional public infrastructure projects already rely almost exclusively on private sector firms for construction services. Design services for conventional projects are also obtained primarily from private firms, although in some cases governments also retain some in-house design capabilities. Facilities management and operation and maintenance of public infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, have also been increasingly outsourced to private sector firms in recent years. In areas where the private sector is already providing design, construction, and facilities maintenance services, the only differences between conventional and P3 procurement methods are the private financing and contractual provisions discussed above.
Despite this, some P3 projects that include an operation and maintenance phase have seen publicly provided services replaced by privately provided services, such as catering and laundry services in the health sector ("soft facilities management" services) and building maintenance services such as elevator repairs ("hard facilities management" services). However, very few P3 projects have included soft facilities management services, especially the most recent wave of P3 projects undertaken by P3 agencies since 2005.5 Moreover, some jurisdictions, such as Ontario, have explicitly avoided including soft facilities management services in the hospital P3 contracts with a maintenance phase (e.g., Sault Area Hospital, North Bay Regional Hospital, Woodstock General Hospital, and the Niagara Health System P3s included only hard facilities management services). As for the long-term P3 projects with hard facilities management services, the affected staff have typically been transferred to the private sector. However, their union representation, collective bargaining rights, and existing contract terms have not been affected.
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5 In such cases, the affected public sector employees have usually been transferred at equivalent wage rates and working conditions to the private firms providing these services. In Quebec, this is required by the Quebec Government's Public Private Partnerships Framework Policy of June 2004, p. 3.