The following statement was given today in the House of Assembly by the Honourable Steve Crocker, Minister of Transportation and Works:

Mr. Speaker, I rise in this Honourable House to update members on the 26th Annual National Conference on Public-Private Partnerships, which I had the pleasure of attending last week in Toronto.

This is an annual conference that is recognized as the world’s premier event on public-private partnerships with participants from across the country.

As I spoke with participants from the rest of Canada, I was happy to hear their excitement as they spoke about what our government is doing to provide large scale infrastructure projects in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Mr. Speaker, just yesterday we began the procurement of a new mental health and addictions facility—our fourth project since January 2017 where we are partnering with the private sector to build infrastructure at a cost that is responsible to all taxpayers.

Value for money assessments on long-term care homes in Gander, Grand Falls-Windsor and Corner Brook, the replacement of Western Memorial Regional Hospital, and the new mental health and addictions facility have concluded that partnering with industry will be more cost-effective than the traditional procurement methods on these projects.

In this fiscal climate, this is smart decision making and this is a wise use of taxpayers’ money.

The Corner Brook long-term care home is under construction, construction on both long-term care homes in central Newfoundland and the new west coast hospital will start in 2019, and construction on the new mental health facility will start in 2020.

All of these infrastructure projects that we are delivering, Mr. Speaker, are on time and on budget.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, at this conference, Cory Grandy, Assistant Deputy Minister for Infrastructure in the Department of Transportation and Works became the newest member of the Board of Directors for the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships, recognizing his knowledge and hard work on these projects that are underway here in our province.

Mr. Grandy and Ms. Andrea McKenna are leading an energetic team in the department that is embracing these partnerships to help our government deliver these large scale projects. They have hit the ground running and I’m very proud of what we have accomplished in less than two years.

Mr. Speaker, these projects demonstrate our commitment to delivering services and creating jobs for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and we look forward to delivering more infrastructure projects in the future.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.