Chris Bennett
Aug 29, 2017
Canada is seen as a global leader in health care P3, writes Paul McLaughlin in a recent article in 2017 Lexpert Special Edition – Infrastructure, and has successfully determined the balance between public health care and private interests. McLaughlin consults a number of lawyers who specialize in P3s to gain insight into how the public-private partnership model works and why it is especially effective for infrastructure projects in the health care sector. In the article, Chris Bennett, Osler partner and Chair of the firm’s Financial Services Practice, provides his perspective on Canada’s success in the P3 sphere, the role played by lawyers on P3 projects and the future of P3.
“In the past ten years, [Ontario and British Columbia] together have closed more P3s than any jurisdiction in the world,” he says, adding that lawyers brings a certain amount of “contractual discipline” to every project. “Good P3 lawyers have to have an understanding of the master risk allocation going on and how that risk is managed between the parties. Where we add the most value is being able to translate that commercial risk allocation into a very thick set of paper, which is what these deals are – document intensive.”
Chris goes on to say that “a good P3 is a P3 that has balanced risk allocation to parties that are best able to bear and price them. The market sees the Canadian templates are very on the mark in this regard.”
And the future of P3? According to Chris, Ontario especially “has run out of hospitals to build. Right now there’s a huge shift to light rail transit, and highways and bridges. The P3 model is also being applied to waste water projects.”
To learn more about the P3 model as it applies to health care facilities, read Paul McLaughlin’s full article “Partnerships in health care” in 2017 Lexpert Special Edition – Infrastructure.