WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - April 29, 2015) - Infrastructure Ontario board member and BMO Capital Markets Vice-Chair Colleen Campbell appeared today before a U.S. Senate Sub-Committee to speak on Ontario's leadership in Alternative Financing and Procurement (AFP), a public-private partnership model that has led to some $10 billion in construction over the past decade.
Speaking on behalf of Infrastructure Ontario about the province's approach to such investments, Ms. Campbell told a hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs' Sub-Committee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development that AFPs represent a responsible way for governments to invest in public infrastructure.
Infrastructure Ontario was created ten years ago when the province faced a significant dilemma, said Ms. Campbell. "The Ontario government had an ambitious plan to rebuild its aging capital stock, yet there were significant concerns that procuring and managing projects using traditional methods would lead to cost over-runs and missed timelines.
"The government realized that complex infrastructure projects have big risks, and that transferring those risks to the private sector was in the public interest. Rather than taking a status quo approach, the province created our AFP model to modernize how large public sector projects are done successfully," stated Ms. Campbell.
Since its inception, Infrastructure Ontario's major projects division has completed 46 projects, and a recent study of completed projects showed that 97 per cent were delivered on or below budget. "As well, 73 per cent of those projects were delivered within a month of their scheduled completion date," noted Ms. Campbell. "This is a very strong track record."
Ms. Campbell further stated that while Infrastructure Ontario's first ten years delivering AFPs have been focused on social infrastructure projects like hospitals and correctional facilities, the next ten years are anticipated to be dominated by civil infrastructure - a major focus of the Senate Sub-Committee. "We are now working on major roads, subway and light rail transit systems."
Ms. Campbell concluded by saying Ontario is a leader in AFP and Canada is a leader in public-private partnerships globally. "There is a strong industry within Canada that includes financial institutions, general contractors, architects, engineers and more, all of whom are part of the success of AFP. There is a deep, efficient bank and bond market available to finance these structures. This financing is available on a long term basis to match the long life of the assets without refinancing risk."
About BMO Capital Markets
BMO Capital Markets is a leading, full-service North American financial services provider. With more than 2,300 employees operating in 30 locations, including 16 in North America, BMO Capital Markets offers corporate, institutional and government clients access to a complete range of investment and corporate banking products and services. BMO Capital Markets is a member of BMO Financial Group (NYSE:BMO)(TSX:BMO), one of the largest diversified financial services providers in North America with more than 46,000 employees and total assets of CDN $672 billion at January 31, 2015.
