Both Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford talk a lot about how they are going to “build, baby, build” major new infrastructure to encourage economic growth and strengthen our resilience against the existential threat from our southern neighbour.
Through partnerships with the private sector, they predict that projects from expanding airports, ports and pipelines to building roads and transit projects must be a major part of the solution.
Experience with Toronto’s Eglinton Crosstown subway line, itself a public-private partnership, might give one cause for concern.
Fifteen years in the making, delivered six years late, mired in lawsuits and billions of dollars over budget, the 19 kilometre, 25-stop transit line has become the poster child for what can go wrong with such projects.
At the low-key opening of the line this past weekend, reporters had fun interviewing young travellers who hadn’t even been born yet when the project first began.
After endless months of speculation about the opening date, Ford, never one to miss a good quote, called the project a “nightmare” and quite simply said, “thank God” it was over.
Opposition critics were quick to pounce, calling for a public inquiry and blaming the use of public-private partnerships as the culprit. Ford flatly turned down their requests.
“I’m the first to come out and acknowledge the mistakes but I’m not going to waste time on an inquiry and all the nonsense and tie all these people up,” said Ford. “All these people here have more subways to build.”
A partisan bun fight among City politicians (some who will run for mayor later this year), the Toronto Transit Commission who is actually running the new line, the provincial transit agency Metrolinx that was in charge of managing the project, the construction consortium that built it, the provincial government that largely funded it, not to mention the Opposition, would turn an inquiry into a highly politicized, finger-pointing, witch hunt.
Experts in quality control and assurance will tell you, that such approaches only cause people to become defensive, blame others and try to score political points, as opposed to rationally analyzing what actually happened, identify ways to prevent a future re-occurrence and learn from the experience.
From the comments of Michael Lindsay, the relatively new CEO of Metrolinx, lessons have already been learned and acted upon, with more analysis underway.
For example, it used to be that all the work required for these massive projects would be bundled up into one big, fancy contract with the private sector partner bearing all the risk. As experience has proven, this is itself a risky way to go about it.
There are too many unknowns that can occur over the life of such a project. Take for example, the impact that the global COVID pandemic had on the project, severely disrupting supply lines and causing a serious shortage of skilled trades.
Most private companies lack the financial depth available to governments and most governments and their agencies lack the expertise of a private contractor who specializes in such work. The trick is to successfully leverage both.
Lindsay said that Metrolinx now separates such projects into more bite-sized chunks with regular re-assessments and re-evaluation of the risks at each stage to determine who should manage and pay for what, with proper incentives introduced to encourage successful completion.
The approach doesn’t guarantee that such complications will not occur – they are inevitable in such major works — but it can encourage a more informed and collaborative way to identify and manage risks. Instead of lawsuits and countersuits, the parties are able to more effectively work together to identify and manage whatever challenges arise.
Our political leaders are right to more aggressively pursue long overdue infrastructure projects. But we can’t afford the cost or the delays of another Eglinton.
Janet Ecker is a former Ontario Finance Minister, Minister of Education, Minister of Community and Social Services and Government House Leader in the governments of Premier Mike Harris and Premier Ernie Eves. After her political career, she served as the founding CEO of the Toronto Financial Services Alliance, a public-private partnership dedicated to building Toronto region into an international financial centre. She currently sits on a number of corporate and non-profit boards, agencies and advisory committees.
Ms. Ecker received the Order of Canada for her public service contributions and was recognized as one of the “Most Influential People in the World’s Financial Centres” by Financial Centres International. She also received a “Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award” from the Women’s Executive Network and the Richard Ivey School of Business, among other awards. She is also one of the founders of Equal Voice, a national, multi-partisan organization working to elect more women.
