Infrastructure / Public-Private Partnerships

“Still very effective as a team, with a good, collegial approach.” Chambers Global 2010, Canada.

Our firm has built one of Canada’s leading domestic and international infrastructure and public-private partnerships (PPP) practices. We have succeeded because we have the right people, expertise and experience.

We advise project sponsors and developers, bidding consortia, operators, lenders, investors and governments on various infrastructure projects, including significant public-private partnerships in some of the largest and most innovative projects in Canada and abroad. These projects range from toll roads, railways and airports to hospitals, educational, recreational and correctional facilities, and municipal water and heating infrastructures.

Our ability to understand the goals of stakeholders in infrastructure projects act as a facilitator among stakeholders and employ a creative approach to completing transactions puts us at the forefront of infrastructure and PPPs, domestically and abroad.

We can help you with procurement, commercial transactional work, financing, tax issues, regulatory including health & safety, licensing, permitting and privacy and access to information matters, municipal and planning law, environmental, energy, dispute resolution and commercial litigation, and aboriginal/First Nations matters.

We offer you

• advice on the RFP/RFQ tendering process including design, implementation, evaluation and selection
• preparation of proposals, negotiating project, financing and consortium agreements as well as service and construction contracts
• advice on joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions and privatizations

Infrastructure / Public-Private Partnerships track record

We have acted as

• Counsel to the construction contractor in connection with Infrastructure Ontario and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation’s Highway Services Centre Project to design, build, finance, maintain and operate 23 existing Service centres across the corridors of Highways 400 and 401.
• Counsel to the primary equity provider in connection with the Niagara Health System which achieved financial close in March 2009.
• Counsel to the lenders of one of the proponents in connection with the McGill University Health Centre project.
• Counsel to the lenders of one of the proponents in connection with the Research Centre of the University of Montreal Hospital Centre.
• Counsel to Infrastructure Ontario and Woodstock General Hospital in connection with the build, finance and maintain project for the new Woodstock General Hospital.  The new facility will provide primary care and specialty services to the residents of Oxford County in Ontario.
• Counsel to the lenders to a consortium in connection with the Fort St. John Hospital project in British Columbia.
• Counsel to the lenders in the $1.1 billion financing for the completion of Highway 30 in Quebec, which is one of the largest greenfield infrastructure project to close in Canada to date. Highway 30 was chosen by Project Finance International and Project Finance Magazine as their North American Deal of the Year in 2008
• Counsel to the lenders in connection with the $206 million Royal Jubilee Hospital P3 project, a new 500-bed in-patient accommodation building to be located on the campus of the existing Royal Jubilee Hospital located in Victoria, British Columbia.
• Counsel to Infrastructure Ontario and the Ministry of the Attorney General in the planning, financing, construction and maintenance of the Waterloo Consolidated Courthouse, Thunder Bay Consolidated Courthouse, Quinte Courthouse Projects and two additional courthouse projects in Ontario.
• Counsel to Groupe Ovation (a wholly-owned subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin Group) in connection with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Hall P3 project.
• Counsel to Infrastructure Ontario in the transaction of the structuring, procurement and negotiation and settlement of the Project Documents for the new Durham Consolidated Courthouse building. This was the first project to achieve financial close under the new Alternative Finance Program and we helped developed the documents which are now the template for this process. This project won the 2007 Canadian Council of Public Private Partnerships (CCPPP) Award of Merit for Project Financing.
• Counsel to SNC-Lavalin in connection with the $543 million structured financing of the Trans-Canada Highway project in New Brunswick.
• Counsel to a bidder on the Saint John Courthouse Project in New Brunswick.
• Counsel to the Toronto Community Housing Corporation in connection with offering of $250 million of debentures to finance the redevelopment of public housing projects in Toronto, Ontario
• Counsel to the lenders to a proponent in connection with the Autoroute 25 public-private partnership project in Montréal.  
• Counsel to Borealis Infrastructure Management, the 75% private sector owner and primary funding/financing partner, on the William Osler Health Centre project and the Royal Ottawa Hospital project, the first major P3 healthcare projects in Ontario.
• Counsel to the project developer/borrower in connection with the $110 million project financing of a wind power farm in Quebec.
• Counsel to a private sector developer/operator consortium as well as the issuer of $162 million first secured bonds in connection with the 25-year private sector BOT for the development and operation of 16 Nova Scotia Regional Learning Centres.
• Structuring counsel and counsel to the underwriters in connection with the $281 million structured public bond financing of the Toronto Hospital 2003 Project
• Counsel to the lending syndicate in connection with the financing of Canada’s privatized air traffic control system - NAV Canada.
• Structuring counsel and counsel to the underwriters in connection with the $720 million initial project bond financing and the second tranche series of project secured bonds for the NATO Flight Training Program in Cold Lake, Alberta and Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
• Counsel to a private sector partner in connection with the restructuring of North America’s second largest district energy Company, the Toronto District Heating Corporation.
• Counsel to a consortium in connection with the Richmond-Airport-Vancouver project in Vancouver, British Columbia.
• Counsel to a private developer in connection with a public private partnership project with the City of Ottawa for the new Ottawa Paramedic Service Headquarters, a 100,000 sq ft, state-of-the-art facility located in the Ottawa South Business Park.
• Counsel to Ottawa Community Ice Partners in connection with a public private partnership project with the City of Ottawa to build and construct a new $25 million four-ice surface and indoor field house sports and recreation facility in Bell SensPlex in Kanata, Ontario.