P3 2020: Virtual celebration held for CCPPP National Awards for Innovation and Excellence

TORONTO — The Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships (CCPPP) unveiled the winners of the National Awards for Innovation and Excellence in P3s with virtual honours held Nov. 18 online at the P3 2020 conference.

“Congratulations to the five winners of this year’s National Awards for Innovation and Excellence in Public-Private Partnerships. In such a challenging year for so many, it is heartening to see the impact of these transformative infrastructure projects — an impact they will continue to have for decades to come — on the lives of Canadians across the country. We look forward to celebrating their innovations and accomplishments in front of a global audience at P3 2020,” said CCPPP president and CEO Mark Romoff.

The Waterloo LRT ION Stage 1 project won the Service Delivery Gold award for the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and Grandlinq. The 19-kilometre LRT system opened in 2019 and the ION corridor in Ontario’s Kitchener-Waterloo area passes through four historic downtowns, a university campus and business parks. It is fully integrated into the region’s bus network, cycling and pedestrian routes.

Using the P3 model it achieved estimated cost savings of 12 per cent compared with traditional procurement and after 12 months of service, the consortium continues to improve system performance and is beating contractual targets for monthly operating performance, a CCPPP release stated.

The winner of the Project Development Gold Award was the Energy Services Acquisition Program (ESAP)/Energy Service Modernization (ESM) Project from Public Works and Government Services Canada and Innovate Energy.

The $1.8-billion initiative modernizes energy plants in five locations to provide heating and cooling for over 80 buildings in Ottawa including Parliament. The design-build-finance-operate P3 is set to reach substantial completion in 2025, followed by 30 years of operations and maintenance.

Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure, SaskBuilds and Regina Bypass Partners won an Infrastructure Gold award for their Regina Bypass project, the largest transportation infrastructure project in Saskatchewan’s history. The $1.88-billion project involved building 12 interchanges, 60 kilometres of four-lane highway, 55 kilometres of new service roads, twinning on Highway 6, as well as the province’s first roundabouts, the CCPPP release said.

Corner Brook Acute Care Hospital in Newfoundland won a Project Development silver award for the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Western Regional Health Authority and the Corner Brook Health Partnership. The project involved the development of a new 164 bed acute care regional hospital to serve the people of western Newfoundland and is the largest capital project in the province.  The P3 model for the project is estimated to have resulted in cost savings of $90 million compared with traditional procurement.

Another Project Development silver award was given to the Nova Scotia Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal and Dexter Nova Alliance GP (DNA) for the Highway 104 Sutherlands River to Antigonish Twinning Project. It is the first P3 highway project in more than 20 years and was one of the first P3 projects to reach financial close last spring in the midst of highly volatile financial market conditions caused by the pandemic, the CCPPP stated.

The awards have been presented by the CCPPP since 1998 and this year’s awards are the first presented virtually by the association.