During the smart growth summit last June this opinionated scribe wrote a column on June 13th lamenting some of the good infrastructure ideas that would remain as mere ideas because the city did not seem to be thinking outside the box with respect to private finance initiatives, public-private partnerships and other creative ways to finance roads,
transit, housing, etc.

Specifically I wrote: "The main challenge in seizing these opportunities is not project complexity or even ideological barriers, the main challenge is in finding elected officials and senior city bureaucrats who have the courage and political will to embrace this approach."

Yesterday city council took up this challenge and good for them. Council endorsed a public-private partnerships (P3) framework document - approved by the corporate services committee last week - that puts our city, according to some bigwigs at Industry Canada, ahead of any other Canadian municipality.

Specifically, a special delivery unit (SDU) will be quickly established
in the city manager's office using his existing budget (read: no new
expenses) to comb the capital budget for opportunities to fast track
some needed projects using the P3 approach. And within six months, this unit will identify and presumably jumpstart the process for putting a recreation type project such as an ice-pad out to market.

My sources at city hall note that kudos for this step forward are due to both City Manager Bruce Thom and Mayor Chiarelli. In addition to endorsing P3s and setting up the SDU, the most interesting part of the policy is in how the city will deal with unsolicited proposals. And trust me this is a big problem: I should know, I used to create it for municipal governments in the mid-90s when I worked for an international facilities management and privatization contractor.

On a weekly, if not daily basis, enterprising entrepreneurs and
international corporate giants offering to run everything from the buses to pools to libraries to parking lots besiege councillors, the city
manager and the mayor. And other folks come forward with interesting proposals to build everything from bus shelters to water plants to new football stadiums. And as noted earlier, before working for the CTF this sort of municipal business development was my job.

The P3 framework, now city policy, handles this "chaos" of proposals in a constructive and unique way. If an unsolicited proposal does not match a need identified in the existing capital plan, the proposal must contain "sufficient detail" to be considered and a consequent streamlined request for proposal / tender process can ensue that simultaneously allows the original proponent and other interested companies to forward solutions for the city.

And for those who are concerned that the city is poised to give away the store to private interests, Ottawa's PC policy effectively addresses this legitimate governance concern.

It states: "Public-private partnerships are one of a number of ways of
delivering public infrastructure and related services. They are not,
however, a substitute for strong and effective governance and
decision-making by elected representatives. In all cases, under Council direction administration would remain responsible and accountable for delivering services and projects in a manner which protects and furthers the public interest."

City manager Bruce Thom should move to quickly staff the P3 SDU with a seasoned official who understands the policy and politics of public infrastructure projects. As well, he should seek out someone with banking/finance experience, a commercial lawyer and an
engineer/architect type of individual to round out this new unit.

In the most recent edition of Summit magazine, which is devoted to public sector purchasing, former federal finance minister Michael Wilson who now chairs the Canadian Council on Public-Private Partnerships succinctly identifies Canadian thinking as it relates to P3s.

He writes: "It should be simple: governments have limited financial resources, public infrastructure in Canada has been starved for funding, and domestic and foreign capital is pounding on the gates to invest in public infrastructure in Canada. However, all levels of Canadian government have been reticent to capitalize on this nexus of interests.
This is especially perplexing when Prime Minister Tony Blair of the UK has successfully expanded private finance initiatives (PFI) to police stations, hospitals, schools, community centres, air navigation systems and the armed forces, in addition to roads, rail and airports."

A very valid observation indeed. Thankfully city council yesterday chose to adopt a progressive and innovative approach to meeting some of our infrastructure needs. Especially when one considers that new capital funding sources will not flow from the feds or Queen's Park in the amounts that are needed anytime soon.

This is good policy and good politics from city council. And yours truly can't help but relish the irony of our city embracing private financing for needed public infrastructure on the day that anti-G8, anti-corporate, anti-everything activists paraded through our streets.