ALBERTA NDP government puts hold on new public private partnerships pending executive council decision Infrastructure Minister Brian Mason says the NDP government won’t launch any new public-private partner- ships pending a decision by executive council on their continued use. Mason, who also serves as trans- portation minister, said he wasn’t de- claring a moratorium on the P3s, but he planned to stick to the traditional meth- ods of funding as he launches a five- year, $34 billion capital construction program. “I think there are real questions about the overall benefit that is re- ceived by P3s,” Mason said in an inter- view with the Calgary Sun. “Certainly, the design-build and operate model is not something I want to proceed with at the present time.” “I have decided, as minister of infra- structure and transportation, that we’re not going to be proceeding with P3s, in the meantime, until a final decision has been made.” He was quoted as saying it was un- likely he would release the report pub- licly because it draws heavily upon confidential Treasury Board and cabi- net discussions. He also confirmed that the government will continue with existing P3 projects approved by the previous Conservative government ap- proved projects. “I certainly don’t want to cast asper- sions on the good work that’s being done by P3 contractors right now for us on any of the projects, but I think it’s fair to say we’re likely to go in another direction going forward,” he said. The NDP curtailed funding to the strategic partnerships office, which as- sesses and manages P3 projects, by nearly half this year in the April 14 budget and allocated no funding for the office in its ministry plans for 2017 and 2018, the Sun reported. The of- fice’s integration within the ministry’s corporate strategies and services divi- sion will result in savings next year of $325,000. However, the leader of the Cana- dian Council for Public-Private Partner- ships (CCPPP) has expressed concern about the Alberta government’s deci- sion. “We are encouraged to hear Alberta Premier Notley has not given up en- tirely on public-private partnerships (P3s), CCPPP president and CEO Mark Romoff said in a statement. “In fact, we would agree with her when she says governments ‘have an obligation to review all types of alternative financ- ing arrangements’ to address infra- structure needs. We are concerned, however, that the premier may not have been well briefed on the full ben- efits of the P3 approach.” “We are disappointed to hear that Minister Mason has declared a mora- torium on future P3 projects in Alberta. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to comment on the specifics of the de- cision because he has chosen not to release details of the P3 review he re- quested. It is equally difficult for us to say whether the findings are thorough or valuable since it’s not clear that the P3 industry was consulted in the course of the internal review,” ex- plained Romoff. A 2014 value for money assess- ment that looked into using the P3 model to design, build, finance and maintain 19 schools determined it would cost more over 32 years than the traditional design bid build ap- proach. It suggested it would cost $570.7 million under the P3 model compared with $566.6 million under the tradi- tional model. Edmonton: $1.8 billion Edmonton LRT extension construction commences Construction has started on the newest 13 km. Valley Line extension of Edmonton’s LRT. The $1.8 billion project, from down- town to Mill Woods, should be com- pleted by 2020. A small group of protesters carried signs and chanted during the LRT’s groundbreaking to assert their view that river valleys and mass transit don’t mix. Mayor Don Iveson says every- thing needed to be done to mitigate that the river crossing has been taken care of. “Any time you cross the river there’s going to be environmental impacts, and the city did incredible work to study those and to mitigate those as best as possible, and that’s one of the reasons why actually the new bridge is going where the old bridge was,” said Edmonton mayor Don Iveson. “So that we don’t have an additional bridge crossing the river which has huge dis- ruption potential to the ecosystem to put in.” The project is being built by TransEd Partners, including Fengate Capital Management, Bechtel, Ellis- Don, and Bombardier. Other key team members include Transdev, ARUP, and IBI Group. Fort McMurray reconstruction: The challenges ahead There are massive and challenging decisions to be made about Fort Mc- Murray’s reconstruction after wildfires destroyed much of the city and re- sulted in the evacuation of its popula- tion of 85,000 in early May. Published reports indicate that insurance esti- mate damages will take the cost of re- building to $9 billion or more. Sandeep Agrawal, director of the urban and regional planning program at the University of Alberta, told the Globe and Mail that officials will have to take a careful look at how it was possible for the fire to cause such ex- tensive damage to a major city, and ex- amine ways of ensuring it won’t happen again. He describes it as “risk based planning,” and it could involve imposing restrictions on development The Canadian Design and Construction Report — May-June 2016 – 21