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First and fastest

01 September 2008

British Columbia's P3 programme has built the strongest track record of any Canadian province. A look at past projects and the province's pipeline from Maria McKenzie and Herb Dodd, partners at Farris.

British Columbia was not the first province in Canada to turn to public-private-partnerships (P3s) as an option for the delivery of infrastructure, since the 1992 Confederation Bridge linking Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick is usually cited as Canada's first P3. But British Columbia was the first province in Canada to fully embrace the P3 model. After its election in 2001, the current provincial government considered the province's significant looming infrastructure requirements, together with the options available for the delivery of this infrastructure, and determined that P3s were a viable and potentially necessary delivery option.

The emergence of P3s in the province was not without a speed bump along the way. In May 2003 it was announced that the operation and maintenance of the Coquihalla Highway, a 186km highway through British Columbia's southern interior, together with its toll revenue, would be turned over to a private operator under a 55-year...


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