“Private-public partnerships back on track in B.C.”
Frances Bula writes on the Province’s Request for Qualifications for bidders on the Evergreen Line.
The provincial government is confident that it’s going to be able to work out an amicable deal with TransLink on how to find its one-third of the money for the $1.3-billion line.
Its confidence appears to be tied to the attitude of the current Mayors’ Council head Langley City Mayor Peter Fassbender. But despite them having “quieter conversations” than previous mayors, there is no indication that either the province is likely to come up with a new revenue source for the Translink $400m share of this project or that the other Mayors will allow this to be met from property tax which has always been the Province’s preferred source.
And, apparently, P3s are back on again because they are cutting out the middle men – the (foreign) banks – and going straight to the institutional investors
pension funds and insurance companies, are looking at lending on government projects because they are seen as stable investments that provide long-term returns.
That is to say, the taxpayers are backstopping the deal – so despite the spin that risk is being transferred to the private sector in a P3 that isn’t happening at all. In fact these same institutions have always bought long term government bonds (known as “gilts” on the London market) because they are at very low risk of default. Unless there is a revolution, of course. Imperial government bonds from Russia and China had a market at one time as wallpaper.
So why is the government convinced it can now get a deal? I suspect because it has the power to force one if it has to, through legislation. And there is still time in its present mandate to do that. Fassbender better have something much better up his sleeve. I cannot imagine what that might look like.
Stephen Rees's blog 
They would be better off spending the billion over that they are squandering on the South Fraser Freeway to build the evergreen line. The Loughheed Highway is truly congested and the Evergreen line could relieve that, but the existing South Fraser Infrastructure is a little inconvenient sometimes but not a huge traffic jam every day. Extra transit would help though to get people to work in Tillbury.
Bernadette Keenan
July 9, 2010 at 8:51 pm
Fassbender doesn’t have anything up his sleeve. It’ll just come down to politely worded disagreement, rather than screaming, angry disagreement. Or the feds bail the project out.
Ouranosaurus
July 12, 2010 at 2:20 pm