From today’s Ottawa Citizen:
Cash crunch paves way for controversial P3s
With city finances tight, planned spending on “soft infrastructure” limited in the long-range financial plan, and the political will to raise taxes substantially weak, the city will increasingly be relying on public-private partnerships to build such projects.
Riding on the success of these projects is millions — and one day, likely billions — of your tax dollars.
The city is already the most advanced major municipality in Canada when it comes to using “P3s,” and they are controversial.
and,
The city started using P3s after former mayor Bob Chiarelli embraced the idea.
I’ve blogged on this briefly before, and most of this is best left for the “full disclosure” blog, but there a couple of things that bear noting out in the open. It’s pretty clear that Lynx Stadium was, from a financial perspective, a “Private-public partnership” (P3) success story, likely the first in Ottawa - and no one from the City will (or should) argue that they’re out any of their initial capital. As part of amalgamation, the City of Ottawa’s debt to the City of Nepean vanished, poof*. As you may recall, the City of Ottawa borrowed it’s share of the stadium construction costs from the substantially more liquid City of Nepean. Various sources say that even without the “amalgamation effect”, Ottawa was already in the black - at least as far as the stadium was concerned. In the beginning - i.e. 1993, revenues from stadium naming rights, taxes, signage, percentages of concessions all went to the City’s coffers. Add to that the $500,000 that Mr. Darwin was repaying each year for the seven years he owned the team on top of the annual lease payments and you get the picture.
I’m hopeful that the new arrangement with the Can-AM League marks a return to the “partnership” portion of the P3 equation.
* (b) all the assets and liabilities of the old municipalities on December 31, 2000, including all rights, interests, approvals, status, registrations, entitlements and contractual benefits and obligations, become assets and liabilities of the city on January 1, 2001, without compensation. 1999, c. 14, Sched. E, s. 5 (3).
