WWW.LEXPERT.CA
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2016
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LEXPERT 17
Harbell, James W. Stikeman Elliott LLP
(416) 869-5690 jharbell@stikeman.com
Mr. Harbell is a partner in the Toronto office and is Chair of the National
Project Development & Finance Group and a former head of the Toronto Real
Estate and Energy Groups. His practice focuses on electricity, infrastructure
and real estate, M&A transactions, municipal and land use development,
project finance and procurement for electricity, gas and government entities.
Hamilton, Peter E. Stikeman Elliott LLP
(416) 869-5564 phamilton@stikeman.com
Mr. Hamilton is a partner in the Toronto office and has been a partner
since 1990. His banking and corporate finance practice extends to PPPs,
infrastructure, project and structured finance, financial institution regulation,
derivatives, corporate finance and insolvency. He has lectured on banking law
at Osgoode Hall Law School.
Gurlesky, Andrew McLauchlin & Associates
(416) 368-2513 agurlesky@mclauchlin.ca
Mr. Gurlesky represents clients in the construction industry, including private
and public owners, developers, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and
engineers. Projects include infrastructure, transportation, commercial
buildings, industrial and energy projects. Experience in structuring and
negotiating project agreements as well as carriage of complex multi-party
construction litigation.
Gross, Wendy J. Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
(416) 862-6737 wgross@osler.com
Ms. Gross's practice focuses on outsourcing and other complex technology
and business process transactions. Her expertise includes technology
outsourcing including telephony and network services, technology
infrastructure, payment systems, cloud computing, procurement,
e-commerce, data protection and privacy.
Gross, Benjamin David Lavery, de Billy, L.L.P.
(514) 877-2983 bgross@lavery.ca
Mr. Gross is a partner and a member of Lavery's financial services and
creditors' rights, real estate, mining, infrastructure, entertainment and
sports, and consumer law groups. His practice includes bank, project,
asset-based, real estate, and lease financing; entertainment and sports law;
consumer law; security on property; advising on enforcement
and non-litigious bankruptcy matters.
Griffiths, Leonard J. Bennett Jones LLP
(416) 777-7473 griffithsl@bennettjones.com
Mr. Griffiths is part of the Environmental/Health and Safety/Energy/First
Nations team that assists with projects, including obtaining approvals,
environmental assessments, M&A, financing and risk management.
LEXPERT-RANKED LAWYERS
borrow, so it restricts the number of projects they can
bid on and work on."
Ehren Cory, Divisional President, Project Delivery at
Infrastructure Ontario, says agencies like his across the
country "will be watching [the Caisse] with interest.
"We're always looking at what other jurisdictions are
doing, whether Q uébec or British Columbia or other
countries, because we have a shared interest in continu-
ing to innovate around these large transit projects."
Dunsky says one of the more interesting trends
in infrastructure financing is coming from Australia.
It's called asset recycling and it's a form of privatization
— with a catch.
"What the federal government there has done is es-
tablish a program whereby they essentially offer funds
to the state government if the state governments will
sell, in whole or in part, infrastructure to the private
sector. If they use the money from the sale to develop
new infrastructure as opposed to just putting it into
general revenues, then the federal government makes
a contribution towards the new infrastructure as well.
"I know the federal government of Canada is look-
ing at that right now. Obviously we don't know wheth-
er they're going to adopt it and, if they do, how it would
work but a program like that essentially unlocks tens of
billions of dollars of value to be used for infrastructure
financing. To an extent it's not new because federal and
provincial governments have privatized infrastructure
assets before but the idea of recycling the money into
other infrastructure projects instead of just putting it
into general revenue is interesting."
e other thing everyone in the area has been wait-
ing to see is the promised federal government infra-
structure bank.
In his Mandate Letter to Amarjeet Sohi, the new
Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, setting
out the new Liberal government's top priorities, Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau wrote: "Work with the Min-
ister of Finance to establish the Canada Infrastructure
Bank to provide low-cost financing (including loan
guarantees) for new municipal infrastructure projects
in our priority investment areas.
"is new institution will work in partnership with
other orders of governments and Canada's financial
community, so that the federal government can use
its strong credit rating and lending authority to make
it easier – and more affordable – for municipalities to
finance the broad range of infrastructure projects their
communities need.
"is should include preparing for the launch of a
new Canadian Green Bond that can enable additional
investments when a lack of capital represents a barrier
to projects."
As for the government's $120-billion commitment
to fund new federal infrastructure, none of the lawyers
or provincial infrastructure officials contacted said
they had yet been given any understanding of exactly
how those numbers break down.
