WWW.LEXPERT.CA
|
2019
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LEXPERT 5
ment in 2018 aer the Liberals fell on a
non-confidence vote; and Prince Edward
Island, where Dennis King emerged
with a minority Conservative govern-
ment earlier this year.
ey joined Scott Moe's centre-right
Saskatchewan Party, now serving its
third term, and Manitoba's Progressive
Conservatives, firmly ensconced under
the leadership of Brian Pallister.
e outliers are Stephen McNeil's Lib-
erals in Nova Scotia, in power since 2017;
Dwight Ball's minority Liberal govern-
ment, elected earlier this year in New-
foundland; and John Horgan's minority
NDP government in British Columbia.
With P3s recently on the rise in Atlan-
tic Canada, BC may represent the only
place in Canada where the outlook for
P3s is not optimistic. But even with a federal election
on the horizon, that's not likely to change — barring
an NDP or Green Party upset.
"Both Conservatives and Liberals are strong, vocal
proponents of infrastructure and P3s," Romoff says.
All of which is not to say that changes in government
or in governing party leadership don't create bumps in
the road for P3s.
"Whenever there's a change in leadership or party,
there is a change in approach that at the very least
can result in some delays in the pipeline," says Tim
Murphy in McMillan LLP's Toronto office. "ese
delays, however, don't necessarily reflect philosophi-
cal differences about the viability of P3s but rather
differences in tweaking the process to suit the new
government's ideology."
Justin Trudeau's Liberals, for example, while remain-
ing committed to infrastructure and P3s, put their own
stamp on the process by replacing Stephen Harper's P3
Canada Fund with the Canada Infrastructure Bank, a
move that no doubt contributed to the funding delays
for which the Liberals have been criticized.
Similarly, the Ontario pipeline remains sluggish as
"JASON KENNEY'S
ELECTION
SIGNIFICANTLY
INCREASES
THE LIKELIHOOD
THAT INFRASTRUCTURE
MODELS WILL
BE DEVELOPED
ALONG THE
P3 MODEL."
Geoff Stenger; Bennett Jones LLP
