WWW.LEXPERT.CA
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2017
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LEXPERT 11
Dietze, Sterling H. Stikeman Elliott LLP
(514) 397-3076 sdietze@stikeman.com
Mr. Dietze's domestic and foreign institutional financing and banking practice
extends to PPPs and infrastructure. He advises borrowers and lenders.
His experience embraces infrastructure, project and international
financing transactions.
Dépelteau, Jean-Pierre Dentons Canada LLP
(514) 878-8814 j-p.depelteau@dentons.com
Mr. Dépelteau is a member of the Construction and Infrastructure group of
Dentons Canada LLP's Montréal office, with over 40 years of experience in
the construction industry. He provides legal and strategic advice to a variety
of public, semi-public and private-sector owners, as well as construction
contractors, specialized construction companies and equipment suppliers.
David, Guy Gowling WLG
(613) 786-0247 guy.david@gowlingwlg.com
Mr. David practises in domestic and international project finance, PPPs and
renewal energy financing, debt capital markets, aircraft and airport financing,
and financial regulatory law. He is co-author of David and Legault-Dooley,
The Annotated Bank Act.
Dagenais, Jean-François BCF LLP
(514) 397-2645 jean-francois.dagenais@bcf.ca
Mr. Dagenais specializes in construction and real estate development law.
Renowned as a fierce litigant, he is also often called upon to play a role
equivalent to in-house counsel, and has solid experience in mediation and
arbitration. He actively participates in amendments to the regulatory frame-
work governing the construction industry in Québec through consultations
with government authorities.
D'Amour, Normand Miller Thomson LLP
(514) 871-5487 ndamour@millerthomson.com
Mr. D'Amour is a leading lawyer in construction law, specializing in writing
and negotiating contracts, interpreting statutes, litigation, mediation and
arbitration. He regularly represents clients before courts of law, arbitrators
and mediators.
Carson, Lorne W. Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
(403) 260-7083 lcarson@osler.com
Mr. Carson, also an engineer, focuses on domestic and international project
development as well as bank and capital markets financing in the infrastruc-
ture, electrical power, renewables, oil and gas and other sectors.
LEXPERT-RANKED LAWYERS
into emerging countries "are going to have to de-
vote a lot of senior resources to this; people are go-
ing to have to learn on the job." He adds, "You're
going to have to learn to do business in a different
environment. It's very demanding."
Still, the reward is there for those willing to
make the investment.
Richer La Flèche declines to go into detail about
his work, but it is safe to say his services are in de-
mand. He has worked on Infrastructure projects
in dozens of developing countries, including Cuba,
the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Cuba, South Africa, Sri
Lanka, Guinea, Senegal, Bahrain and Armenia.
He's acted for governments, corporations and
lenders, so he's familiar with the territory.
Most of the major players in the field are inter-
national firms headquartered in Europe or the US,
and he suggests that some Canadian firms may
stay away from developing world projects because
they feel they lack the pedigree or name recogni-
tion of some of the dominant companies. But that
is a mistake. "Canadians can compete against any-
body provided the rules are public, well known,
and there is transparency and integrity [in the bid-
ding process]," he says.
Indeed, being from the Great White North can
be an advantage because this country doesn't carry
a lot of cultural baggage — we're the only G7 coun-
try that was never a colonial power, he says. And
when it comes to countries such as Cuba, Canada
never had an embargo, says Richer La Flèche.
More importantly, this country has had signifi-
cant experience with P3s. Due to the high cost of
roads, railways and other kinds of Infrastructure,
governments are increasingly turning to the pri-
vate sector to share the load in exchange for a piece
of the profits, and the P3 model has become the
vehicle of choice.
Starting in the early 2000s, Ottawa and the
provinces embarked on a series of ambitious P3s.
BC was the first, launching more than $10 bil-
lion of mostly transportation projects in the early
2000s. Later, Alberta and central Canada took the
ball with the construction of new hospitals and
more roads. Today, those projects are heralded as
examples of how P3s should be done.
"e Canadian P3 experience is a large one.
Canada, the UK and Australia are really at the
forefront of the world," says Richer La Flèche.
A key challenge for any major Infrastructure
project in the developing world is credit. Many
governments struggle to pay for essential transpor-
tation and power supply. Since regions like Africa
and Latin America are oen dependent on nat-
ural resources, government revenue tends to rise
and fall with commodity prices, which means the
money may run out before the project is built.
at's usually not a major concern in OECD
countries, but in the developing world, it should
