Summary:
The development and maintenance of design and construction pipelines is a critical tool for the consulting engineering industry to efficiently prepare for effective project planning, design, procurement, and delivery.
Issue Details:
The development and maintenance of design and construction pipelines is a critical tool for the consulting engineering industry to efficiently prepare for effective project planning, design, procurement, and delivery. Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office currently calculates the province has a $16.8 billion dollar infrastructure backlog. As the province continues to recover from the pandemic, it is ACEC-Ontario’s position that now is the government’s opportunity to maximize the value of these infrastructure projects and provide the regular, comprehensive, and detailed project pipeline information so industry can plan their business and boost market competition.
Infrastructure Ontario (IO) is an example of a government agency that provides a project pipeline, specifically for Public-Private-Partnership (P3) projects. Per IO, pipelines “help potential local and global private-sector partners organize their time and resources to make sure Ontario gets robust, innovative, and competitive bids for its P3 infrastructure projects.” The value of project pipelines is clear, but other government agencies and ministries have been remiss to provide this essential information to the marketplace even though they have the information on hand and ready to be communicated.
The absence of comprehensive project pipelines is jeopardizing the successful implementation of the Government of Ontario’s infrastructure plan. Program-critical preparations essential for efficient and effective project planning, design, procurement, and delivery necessary to the consulting engineering industry cannot be completed as planned by the government without this information. This situation represents a clearly defined risk to the government’s infrastructure agenda. However, this risk can be mitigated by the timely and consistent supply of non-confidential yet market sensitive, non-public information enabling the efficient and effective delivery of consulting engineering services.