Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to speak today on Public/Private Partnerships. This is a great idea and I think it is worthwhile for us all to consider. There are many examples regionally, nationally and internationally of such projects, City of Toronto, British Columbia, United Kingdom, Australia, California, Toronto. I just mentioned Toronto twice there. In order for us to undertake this expenditure a lot of homework must be done by all of us. We need time to ensure that we study the policies, the legislative and regulatory issues in detail. We must also ensure that projects must irrevocably benefit the public at large. We must review in detail the decision making process to ensure maximum competition with the lowest cost possible to this government. Rather than relying on just the Coles report which is just one of such many documents available, we should have a task force to investigate the P3s.
--Laughter
In BC just such a task force was formed and released in October, 1986. Included on the task force were members of industry, union, government and academia. The task force was established to assess the feasibility and applicability, select a few projects that could be used on a pilot basis, offer strategic advice on critical factors that create barriers, review national and international experiences with P3s, commission a study on the risk analysis, review public sector versus private sector financing. All northerners would benefit if we had such a task force.
Some of the recommendations of the BC task force were the establishment of a public/private partnership advisory board, pilot projects, comprehensive framework to guide implementation, guidelines to use in planning and budgeting capital projects, development of detailed project action plans and procurement guidelines, a review and assessment of legislation such as the Municipal Act. The above would be a worthwhile endeavour for us to consider. There are many strengths and there are limitations and risks attached to these P3s. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
--Applause