In just a decade, the “big four” Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec have embraced public-private partnership (P3) projects to the point where they are almost a mainstream construction-delivery method. While concessionaires continue to keep an eye on the uneven progress of the U.S. P3 market, they have gone north to land solid P3 projects.
“In Canada, there is a big pipeline of opportunity,” says Steve Small, senior vice president of development in Bilfinger Berger Project Investments Inc.’s Vancouver, British Columbia, office. “We are actively bidding on five projects and looking at another five. In the United States, a lot of projects have come out, but only a few have actually closed. There have been a lot of start-stops. There is huge potential [for U.S. P3 projects], and we’re watching closely until we get some comfort that the processes are inplace and the political will is there.”