October 7, 2009

CCA fall board meeting

Canadian Construction Association prepares public-private partnership guide

VINCE VERSACE

staff writer

Members of the Canadian Construction Association (CCA) now have a draft guide to review about the public-private partnership project landscape.

The growing use of P3s as a project delivery model was the catalyst for the CCA to form a task force to generate a guide for its members.

The association’s P3 task force distributed the draft of its P3 guide during its fall board meeting in St. John's, N.L.

The guide wasn’t created to either promote or discourage participation in P3 projects.

Francis Pomerleau, chairman of the CCA general contractors council, told his council members that the guide should be of interest to all contractors, whether or not they intend to be involved in a P3.

“The intent of the document is to inform members on what is a P3, what to expect and some of the risks,” Pomerleau said.

The guide is aimed at small and medium-sized contractors and covers areas such as contractor and subcontractor roles, potential rewards, risks and risk transfer, contract security and best practices.

The CCA formally recognizes the P3 model, but it does not “endorse any particular model as panacea” the guide states.

“This is really the basics of P3s,” said Paul Charette, the CCA’s former chairman.

“It is a guide about educating people about the process.”

Serge Massicotte, chairman of the CCA’s standard practices committee, said CCA members have until the association’s next meeting in March to provide feedback.

Michael Atkinson, president of the CCA, noted to members that Canada’s federal public-private partnerships office has issued its first call for project submissions to be funded from the $1.2 billion P3 Canada Fund.

The call was issued to provinces and territorial governments, which can submit provincial, territorial and municipal projects by Oct. 30.

The call was also issued to Indian and Northern Affairs Canada to help identify and pursue P3 projects of interest to First Nations.

The Association of Consulting Engineering Companies-Canada (ACEC) recently set up a task force to examine the pros and cons of P3s.

The task force said it would look at work already underway by the CCA and the Association of Consulting Engineers of Quebec.

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