For those still unconvinced that public-private partnerships (P3s) are a bargain with the devil, recent experiences with P3s in various Canadian cities ought to seal the deal. The Ottawa case study is a doozy. To tackle downtown traffic congestion from bus overload, the city attempted to build out its light-rail. Because of the P3 model deployed, disaster ensued: lawsuits, sinkholes, trapped workers, delays, layoffs, scathing reports, malfunctioning doors, transit riders hopping a fence to escape the station, system failures, faulty trains, and more. And the Edmonton case isn’t a ringing endorsement of the model either. Ditto Toronto’s Eglinton Crosstown LRT.

The premise of a P3 is that the public shoulders an outsize cost burden and shifts profits to the private sector on major projects — typically infrastructure. Deficit and debt hawks will tell you that the arrangement is a godsend, since it helps reduce public debt. But in the end, someone pays, and it’s always the user, which is to say the citizen, resident, or visitor who is left with higher costs and worse service. These projects often suffer from delays, exceed allocated budgets, and result in poor outcomes, all while lacking adequate democratic accountability.

In 2022, the Ottawa Light Rail Transit (LRT) inquiry documented the disastrous development and roll out of the light-rail in the city. The inquiry criticized the P3 model, noting “the P3 model caused or contributed to several of the ongoing difficulties on the project.” The project was an utter mess, and once the LRT launched, it was plagued by delays and breakdowns. As the inquiry notes, the P3 approach played a significant role in the botched project by boxing out the public. “For example, whereas the City traditionally had a hands-on, leading role in projects, given the lesser role it played under this model, the City was left in a position where it had limited insight or control over the OLRT1 project,” it says.