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VICTORIA – Partnerships BC won two awards last night at
the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships (CCPPP) 2005 National
Awards for Innovation and Excellence, reaffirming British Columbia’s position
as a national leader in implementing successful public private partnerships.
The Sea-to-Sky Highway Improvement Project won the CCPPP Gold Award and
the Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre project won the Award of
Merit – both in the Project Financing category. It was the second award for the
Abbotsford Hospital project, which was honoured in March 2005 as Project
Finance magazine’s North American Partnership of the Year. Partnerships
BC also captured the 2004 CCPPP Project Financing award for the now-completed
Sierra Yoyo Desan Resource Road in northeastern B.C.
In accepting the award, Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon said, “The
Sea-to-Sky Highway Improvement Project is a great example of bringing the
expertise of the public and private sector together to deliver benefits to
motorists. The contract between the Ministry of Transportation and the
contractor (S2S Transportation Group) will result in significant additional highway
improvements to meet the safety, reliability and capacity objectives of the
project, and is expected to be completed in 2009.”
“The
Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre Project brings cost-savings of
about
$39 million over the life of the contract, and those savings will go directly
to patient care,” said
Health Minister George Abbott. Further, the B.C. Auditor General reviewed the
value-for-money report for this project and concluded that it fairly represents
the results to date of the process and project.
“These awards are very positive recognition at a national level,” said
Finance Minister Carole Taylor. “We were already very pleased at how well these
projects have delivered innovation and lowered risks and costs to government,
and it is even more rewarding when they are recognized as national examples of
how partnership projects can be done – and done well.”
Minister Taylor’s predecessor Gary Collins was also honoured at the Toronto conference, accepting the 2005 Champion Award. Collins was praised for initiating the current successful projects (and many others) and especially for creating Partnerships BC, an independent, provincial agency responsible for implementing public private partnerships, formulating best practices and developing a centre of expertise.
“Partnerships can bring significant value to help meet the growing
demand for roads, bridges, highways, healthcare facilities and other public
infrastructure,” said Partnerships BC president and CEO Larry Blain. “Public
private partnerships are all about transferring risks such as construction
budget and schedule to the private sector to get the most benefits from project
innovation. B.C. is demonstrating that we can build and maintain infrastructure
in record time and deliver value for money.”
The Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships is a national non-partisan, non-profit organization founded in 1993 to conduct research, publish findings and to promote discussion of the benefits and risks of public private partnerships, in Canada and abroad. It is entirely funded by members who are divided almost equally between the public and private sectors. For more information, visit www.pppcouncil.ca.
B.C. currently has more than $3.5 billion in approved public private
partnerships under construction, which includes $2 billion in private equity.
For more information on any of these projects, visit Partnerships BC at www.partnershipsbc.ca.
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contact: |
Director, Communications Partnerships BC 604 660-0985 mina.laudan@partnershipsbc.ca |
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Visit the Province's website at www.gov.bc.ca for online information and services. |
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